PLAIN SERMONS 




PERSONAL RELIGION. 




REV. GEORGE "WVNATT, 

LATE RECTOR OF ST. ANDREW^ CHURCH, WEST PHILADELPHIA. 



AN OFFERING FROM HIS FRIENDS AND FORMER PARISHIONERS FOR 
THE CAUSE OF MISSIONS IN THE CHURCH. 



at 



1/ 



Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters." 



philadelphia: 
J. B. LIPPIi\COTT & CO. 
1867. 



The Library 
of Congress 

washington 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by 
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 



Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



3 <c k I <? 




PREFACE. 



The late Bishop Potter had, for some time previous to his 
death, contemplated the publication of a selection of Sermons 
from the manuscripts of the Rev. George W. Natt. His object 
in so doing was to place in the hands of lay-readers, discourses 
written for country congregations, which might tell the truth 
simply and clearly, yet with sufficient brevity to allow their being 
read with ease, in places where the services of a regularly or- 
dained minister could not be had. In conversations and letters 
on the subject, he had alluded to the great want in the Church 
of sermons less elaborate than most of those now published, and 
had expressed a strong desire to have the publication of these 
made at an early date. At his request, a number of such sermons 
were sent to him, and a brief memoir of their author prepared. 
The continually increasing cost of publication led him, from time 
to time, to defer the attempt; but shortly before he left the 
Diocese, he expressed his intention of carrying out the plan as 
soon as practicable. Like many other labors for the Church, his 
lamented death suspended this ; but it is thought by some, who 
knew of his project, that the sermons may still be useful for the 
purpose he desired, and in the hope that good may be done, they 
are sent forth. If but one faint-hearted Christian be strengthened, 
one sinner be awakened, or one laborer be provided with an in- 

cm) 



iv 



PREFACE. 



strument whereby he may "sow the seed," they will not have 
failed of our Bishop's intentions. 

The Sermons were selected, not with reference to the special 
seasons of the Church year, nor to any plan of systematic doc- 
trinal teaching, but to the obligations of personal religion, and 
to the directness of their appeals to the hearts and consciences of 
men. 

The memoir, at first written merely to furnish the Bishop with 
material for a sketch of his own, was afterward altered, at his 
suggestion, so as to enable him to use it in its present form. In 
one conversation on the subject, he named two or three brethren, 
clerical and lay, to whom he should apply for the expression of 
their sentiments in regard to the work and character of the 
deceased. The extracts at the end of the sketch are given in 
accordance with this design — the first from one of the clergy- 
men whom he named — the other from the pen of a distinguished 
layman. 

Philadelphia, February, 1867. 



CONTENTS. 



Preface 3 

Memoir , 7 

SERMON I. 

Spiritual Blindness 31 

SERMON II. 

The Spirit's Strife with Man 47 

SERMON III. 

The Real Wants of the Soul 61 

SERMON IV. 

The Danger of Delay 73 

SERMON V. 

The Preaching of Christ 86 

SERMON VI. 

Resistance to God 100 

SERMON VII. 

The Almost Christian 113 

SERMON VIII. 

The Freeness of Grace 129 

SERMON IX. 

The Necessity of Choice 142 

SERMON X. 

The Sufficiency of Grace 155 

SERMON XL 

The Necessity of Faith 166 

SERMON XII. 

The Baptism of St. Paul 176 

SERMON XIII. 

The Love of God in Christ 190 



VI CONTENTS. 



SERMON XIV. 

The Sins of Our Youth 200 

SERMON XV. 

The Advantages of Early Purity 212 

SERMON XVI. 

An Appeal to Men 222 

SERMON XVII. 

St. Paul as a Pastor 236 

SERMON XVIII. 
The Sin of Balaam 249 

SERMON XIX. 

The Loss of the Soul 257 

SERMON XX. 

The Unseen Witnesses 268 

SERMON XXL 

Trials sent for our Good 282 

SERMON XXII. 

The Obligation of Duty 293 

SERMON XXIII. 
The Duty of attending Church 305 

SERMON XXIV. 
Christians as Witnesses 316 

SERMON XXV. - 
Firmness in Duty 330 

SERMON XXVI. 
Christian Communion 342 

SERMON XXVII. 
The Line of Separation 354 

SERMON XXVIII. 
The Example of Dorcas 370 

SERMON XXIX. 
The Doom of the Unprofitable Servant 384 

SERMON XXX. 

St. Paul at Corinth 396 



MEMOIR. 



The Rev. George Washington Natt was born in 
Philadelphia, January 5th, 1815. His parents had come 
from England several years previous, and being much re- 
joiced at the restoration of peace between this country and 
Great Britain, the news of which reached Philadelphia 
shortly after his birth, called him George Washington in 
memory of the Father of their adopted country. 

The early years of his boyhood were spent in his native 
city. He was unusually strong and active and took great 
delight in childish sports. At the age of eleven he was 
sent to the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire, Connecticut, 
of which the Rev. Asa Cornwall was then the Principal. 
His parents had been Unitarians, but his mother had been 
induced, by the persuasions of his elder sister, to have him 
baptized by the Rev. Dr. Pilmore at St. Paul's, some time 
before he left the city. His first strong impressions of the 
excellence and beauty of the Liturgy, and of the necessity 
of true religion, seem to have been received while under 
Mr. Cornwall's care, to whose admirable family he ever felt 
deeply indebted for years of watchful training and kindness. 

He returned from Cheshire in his sixteenth year, and for 
a short time engaged in his father's business. Thus having 
embarked in a course which seemed to pledge him to secu- 
lar pursuits, the thought of being a minister of God, which 
had occasionally during boyhood possessed his mind, ap- 
peared to be forgotten. It had never been a decided pur- 
pose, and had at first no other foundation than the fact, that 
the venerable Dr. Abercrombie had once laid his hand upon 
his head, and turning the child's face up, so that their eyes 
met, said, "George, you ought to be a minister, you have a 

en 



8 



MEMOIR. 



minister's face." Doubtless at Cheshire, the sense of the 
greatness and blessedness of the pastoral work had often 
been brought to his thoughts ; but it was not until the re- 
ceipt of a letter from one of his former school-mates, urging 
him to complete his studies at Hartford, that the more defi- 
nite purpose of giving himself to such a life was formed. 
Nor was this intention quite decided until near the comple- 
tion of the college course ; when on his nineteenth birth- 
day, a solemn consecration of himself to the work of the 
ministry was made, in a record of birth-days which he kept 
throughout his life, and which was, until its close, sacred 
to his eyes alone. 

The preceding year he had been ill, "sick unto death," 
with a severe attack of small- pox. The disease had been 
contracted while on a visit to a friend in Philadelphia, but 
as the impression on his mind was, that the danger of in- 
fection was over, the friend being almost well, he went back 
to Hartford unconscious of any risk either to himself or 
others. So violent was the character of the disease when 
developed, and so great the fears, at that time excited, by 
the appearance of such a case among them, that the inhab- 
itants talked of having him removed from the city ; but the 
determination and kindness of two friends, who devoted 
themselves to the task of nursing him, prevailed over the 
fears of others, and he was allowed to remain. His life, he 
always said, was, under God, saved by those faithful men, 
both of them still honored and successful clergymen of the 
Church — Rev. Drs. Ashley and Payne. His recovery from 
the attack was rapid, but the weakness of lungs to which 
he was ever afterward subject, was doubtless the effect of 
this dangerous illness. In August, 1834, he graduated, 
taking some of the honors of the class. 

In October of the same year, he commenced his theo- 
logical course at the General Seminary in New York. Here 
he engaged in such active duties of Christian philanthropy 
as his position permitted, with the earnestness which always 
marked his efforts ; but his friends saw with uneasiness 
that his former cheerful and vigorous health was in a degree 
impaired, and he became himself conscious of a change in 
his physical powers. This, among other reasons, led him 
to abandon the idea he had once entertained of devoting 



MEM 0111. 



9 



himself to the work of foreign missions, and he gradually- 
settled down into the conviction, that whatever measure of 
strength and ability he possessed, ought to be given to the 
claims of his native State, Pennsylvania. Acting upon 
this, through a ministerial course of nearly twenty -six 
years, he steadily resisted all temptations to seek other 
fields of labor, and died, as he had lived, a clergyman of 
this Diocese. 

He passed through the seminary course with credit ; and 
on the 9th of July, 183*7, was, with others of his class, ad- 
mitted to the Diaconate, in Christ Church, Philadelphia, 
by the Bishop of the Diocese. With what views and feel- 
ings he entered upon his holy office, may be shown by a 
brief extract from the record of special days before referred 
to : "I do not presume to take upon me this office and min- 
istry, trusting, oh ! Lord, in my own strength, but in Thy 
all-sufficient grace. Of myself I can do nothing, absolutely 
nothing. Oh ! my Saviour ! make me deeply sensible of 
this. If ever a word spoken by my mouth shall be in- 
strumental in saving a soul from death, or in edifying the 
body of Christ, Thine will be the glory, for Thine will be the 
power which has wrought the work. All my hope of suc- 
cess I desire to draw from Thee. Walking before Thee in 
humility, I would desire to feel that Thou, and Thou alone 
canst make me an instrument of good to the souls of my 
fellow- sinners. I would know only Jesus Christ and Him 
crucified in my ministry. In striving to win souls to Him 
I would remember His own words : ' I, if I be lifted up 
will draw all men unto me without fear of man, without 
any unholy seeking of his favor, I intend, God being my 
helper, to preach the truth in love ; holding back nothing 
which is profitable, but so far as in me lies, rightly dividing 
the word of God. Henceforth I am to consider myself as 
not my own but Christ's ; all my energies, mind, body, and 
spirit are to be employed in His service and for His glory. 
May I live for my Master, pray, labor, watch, suffer, 
with all cheerfulness that Christ may be magnified in my 
body ! These are large desires, but only such as become 
the minister of Christ, only such as He will of His abund- 
ant mercy be willing to gratify. A thousand difficulties 
are before me, a thousand trials beset my path. 'The 

2 



10 



MEMOIR. 



world, the flesh, and the devil' will unite, aye, have already 
united, to work against my soul, and to hinder the success 
of my ministry ; and oh ! if I were alone, had I no hope 
but in myself, in my own feebleness, doubtless their mali- 
cious designs would succeed. But I do not presume to 
place my reliance on my own strength. 'I can do all 
things through Christ which strengtheneth me.' If I can 
only throw myself into His arms I shall be safe forever. 
Take me, oh! my Saviour, and keep me unto life ever- 
lasting !" 

Immediately after his ordination, he placed himself at 
the disposal of Bishop Onderdonk, who sent him to the 
then newly - organized parish of St. John's, Bellefonte. 
Early in August, 1837, he commenced his work in that 
place. There were but two communicants of the church, 
and|but few who had been baptized into her fold. The 
Rev. Mr. Chambers had for a few months resided in the 
place, and the foundation of a small church had been laid ; 
but the superstructure was yet to be raised, and until this 
was completed, the congregation worshipped in a room used 
as a Masonic Lodge. Through the following autumn and 
winter, services were regularly held in this place, and 
though Mr. Natt's heart and mind were soon thoroughly 
enlisted both in the work of completing the church edifice 
and in building up the walls of the spiritual Zion, he com- 
menced a series of services in the neighboring localities, 
riding on horseback often twelve miles into the country, 
and returning before the evening. The fruits of untiring 
labor were soon evidenced in the awakening interest of 
bis people. Early in May, he had the happiness of see- 
ing the church consecrated, a Sunday-school in successful 
operation, and a class for Confirmation presented to the 
Bishop. The signs of God's presence among them cheered 
the pastor's heart, and unwilling to leave some who were 
inquiring the way to Christ, he gave up the hope of being 
present at the Convention of the Diocese and of visiting 
family and friends. This (it is believed) was the only Con- 
vention from which he was ever absent, despite the many 
troubles of subsequent years. He remained at his post 
until late in July, when the sense of weariness and exhaus- 
tion, obliged him to give up for a time, and he reluctantly 



MEMOIR. 



11 



closed the church for two or three Sundays. The founda- 
tions of that future weakness and suffering against which 
he ever afterward struggled, were now being laid ; the im- 
possibility of procuring a substitute when he needed rest, 
and his unwillingness to close the church, often compelled 
him to efforts beyond his strength, and made him defer the 
season of relaxation until nature was too much exhausted 
to benefit by it. After the completion of the church edifice, 
he relinquished his afternoon services in the country, sub- 
stituting in their place occasional week-day services, and 
confining his Sunday ministrations to Bellefonte. 

In February, 1839, he went to Philadelphia to receive 
Priest's orders, having in January attained the canonical 
age of twenty-four years. In the summer of the same year, 
the attendance being much more regular and full, he was 
stimulated to unusual exertion. Having of course no as- 
sistance, he read prayers and preached three times each 
Sunday, beside giving his attendance to the Sunday-school 
twice a day and holding week-day services. The due prep- 
aration for all these, the physical efforts which he made, 
were in the midst of domestic trials and sorrows. Early in 
the fall, his voice, which had been quite strong, suddenly 
failed, and other alarming symptoms accompanying this, 
induced his physician to advise his giving up the parish to 
seek a milder climate during the ensuing winter. The 
entire inability to fulfil its duties led him to resign his 
position; but the vestry, unwilling to accept his resigna- 
tion, proposed a temporary absence, and although reluctant 
to leave them without a shepherd's care, he at length con- 
sented to the plan. He spent some weeks in travelling, in 
the hope of providing some one to whom he might, for a 
season, commit the infant church; all his efforts, however, 
proving unsuccessful, he, with "much heaviness of spirit," 
sailed for the West Indies. A distressing sea- sickness being 
his constant companion on the voyage, he arrived at St. 
Croix in a much more feeble condition than when he left 
' home. In a few days, however, he became sensible of an 
increase of strength, and after some months' residence on 
the Island, returned to the United States, with voice and 
health so far restored that he thought himself justified in 
the immediate resumption of his duties, and recommenced 



12 



MEMOIR. 



his labors in Bellefonte in the latter part of April, 1840. 
His long absence had been injurious to the interests of the 
Church, and he felt that " much of his work had to be done 
over again." The physical vigor with which he had at 
first conducted it, the strength and clearness of his voice 
never returned, and he was soon obliged to confine his 
preaching to two sermons, and his work in the Sunday- 
school to one attendance a day ; at the same time striving 
to attain a more quiet delivery, his first efforts being marked 
by great energy of manner. The result of his reflections 
while absent from his flock, had been to determine him to 
seek extreme plainness and simplicity of style, and his aim 
ever afterward seemed only to make the gospel which he 
preached easy of understanding and direct in application to 
those who heard, leaving to others, who occupied different 
spheres, a greater care and elaboration in their discourses. 
This determination, to be straightforward and simple in his 
sermons, he from that time strictly adhered to. 

Before leaving for the West Indies, he had, with the con- 
sent of the Bellefonte vestry, accepted an invitation from 
the old and almost extinct parish at Philipsburg, to hold 
services there regularly on the fourth Sunday of each 
month. Philipsburg was on the other side of the Alle- 
ghany mountains, and the distance being nearly thirty 
miles from Bellefonte, involved a necessary absence of 
some days, that time might be given for pastoral over- 
sight, as well as for public service, in this new field of 
labor. From the date of his return, these visitations were 
regularly made, until he was enabled, some years after, to 
obtain the services of a resident minister at Philipsburg. 
A small church, erected principally by the liberality of 
Hardman Philips, Esq., had taken the place of the former 
Union Meeting-House, in which the services were first 
held. It had been Mr. Natt's desire to have the new 
building erected on another site, lest legal difficulties should 
arise as to the possession of the church. In this respect 
his fears proved well founded; a tedious and vexatious 
lawsuit finally terminated in giving the beautiful little 
edifice into the hands of the public, notwithstanding the 
fact that less than ten dollars had been contributed by 
persons of other denominations. The growth of the Church 



MEMOIR. 



13 



in Philipsburg was very much hindered by this untoward 
event, and was the occasion of a great deal of trouble and 
pain to Mr. Natfc 

Meantime, the Church in Bellefonte prospered, though 
its growth was not rapid, the place not increasing, and 
other forms of faith having occupied the ground before its 
introduction. During the two following years, the whole 
region of country in Central Pennsylvania was visited by 
Mr. Natt, and supplied with occasional services. Several 
of the parishes, on the north and east, being vacant, looked 
to him for some supervision, and openings for the Church 
presenting at Clearfield and Morrisdale, on the west, and 
Lockhaven and Jersey Shore, on the northeast. During 
his absence, the church in Bellefonte was not closed, lay- 
reading now supplying the deficiency of the pastor's minis- 
trations, and arrangements being made by him for week- 
day services, at many of these points, so as to leave Belle- 
fonte on Sunday as seldom as possible. Beside the oc- 
casional preaching at settlements within a few miles of his 
own parish, his record of appointments during those two 
years include a frequent mention of Huntingdon, Holidays- 
burg, Lewistown, Brown's Mills, Philipsburg, Clearfield, 
Morrisdale, Lock Haven, Jersey Shore, and Williamsport. 
Those were not the days of railroads in that part of the 
State, and his journeys were either made on horseback or 
in an open vehicle. Through wind and storm, cold and 
heat, he went, not only to fulfil his public duties, but visit- 
ing, from house to house, among the poor and sick of the 
flock, with a faithfulness and zeal, which made his name 
"to be had in honor" in all the country around. He was 
preparing one morning for a horseback journey, through a 

drifting, blinding snow-storm, when Judge , who was 

not one of his parishioners, came over to the house. " They 
tell me, Mr. Natt," he said, "you are going to Philipsburg 
to-day; now I suppose you'll think it's no business of 
mine, as you don't belong to me ; but I have come over 
to ask if you really mean to be such a fool as to go ?" 
He smiled, and replied, "You know, it is written, Judge, 
'we are fools for Christ's sake.'" " Poh, poh ! that pas- 
sage does not apply here; perhaps I should not say fool, 
but foolhardy. Why, man ! the mail-stage is not even 

2* 



14 



MEMOIR. 



going to attempt it; take the advice of an old traveller, 
stay at home and write your sermons." "Well, Judge," 
he replied, " I do not wish to tempt Providence ; if it is as 
you say, I must stay, though I am very sorry, for it is the 
first time weather has ever kept me back, and I do not like 
to make a beginning. I am much obliged to you, sir, for 
your kindly interest." "Oh! as to that, you see, if we 
donH all agree with you, we shouldn't like to have Jack 
Frost shut you up. " 

A little incident, told by one of his parishioners in B , 

who was sojourning in one of the beautiful valleys of that 
region, may serve to show both the prejudice against the 
Church which then existed, and the light in which he was 
regarded by the country people. She was waiting, with 
some of her friends, for the opening of a Presbyterian prayer 
meeting, which was to be held in that vicinity, when her 
attention was drawn to the conversation of some persons 
near her, who were discussing the merits of different forms 
of worship. "Well!" said one, raising her voice in reply 
to a remark which had just been made by another, " I don't 
care much for the difference between others, but of all the 
'nominations I hates the 'Piscopals. I hates them worse 
than the Papishers, they're so stuck up." "But," said 
another, "they do say there's one Natt lives in Bellefonte, 
that people think 's one of the best men ever lived." "I've 
he'erd tell of him," replied the first speaker, "and it may be 
so, if everybody says it is, but all I know is, if it is so, 
then he's got all the goodness ; for there ain't a bit among 
the rest !" Our friend was much amused, but more de- 
lighted with this unwitting testimony to the worth of her 
pastor. 

The strong feeling existing against the Church, and the 
many objections raised by cavillers, as well as the more 
serious questions prompted by really inquiring minds, led 
him, at this time, to make the distinctive principles of the 
Church a frequent subject of public discourse, as well as of 
private instruction. In this he was ever consistent, main- 
taining, with gentle firmness, his views of "evangelical 
truth and apostolic order" on all proper occasions. That 
his single devotion to his Master's cause, and his firm con- 
victions of the claims of the Church, as he held them, 



MEMOIR. 



15 



did not interfere with the largest exercise of Christian 
charity towards others, may be inferred from the fact, that 
his standing as a man, and as a minister of the gospel, 
ranked as high among the various denominations by whom 
he was surrounded, as among his own people. The knowl- 
edge that, for the sake of his work in that vicinity, he will- 
ingly laid aside all inducements to seek an easier, a more 
lucrative, or a more ambitious sphere of usefulness, con- 
tributed not a little to heighten the esteem in which he was 
held. Where the Great Head of the Church had placed 
him, there, despite all its difficulties and privations (and 
what these were few ever knew), there he remained. A 
salary not more than sufficient to supply half the wants of 
his household ; a want of intercourse with fellow-laborers 
to hold up his hands ; a contact with the rougher side of 
human nature, trying to a keenly sensitive and fastidious 
temperament, which shrunk from neglect, rudeness, or want 
of culture and refinement, in a more than usual degree; 
all these, thorns and briers in the path, were steadily and 
persistently put aside, or trodden down; and what he 
considered his duty was pursued with an energy and de- 
termination, of which neither his mental nor his physical 
organization would have seemed capable. "Onward, right 
onward," was his motto in those days. "Faint, yet pur- 
suing," was that inscribed on his banner in the days of 
bodily weakness and suffering which soon followed. For, 
after his efforts to procure the more constant ministrations 
of others to the several vineyards of his planting had been 
in some measure successful, the necessity for a less fa- 
tiguing round of duty became apparent, and he who had, 
day after day, sometimes for a week together, ridden 
through heat or storm, from thirty to fifty miles, often 
without rest or refreshment, because the hour appointed 
for service was nigh, and he would not be behind time, 
was soon compelled by increasing weakness to confine him- 
self to the peculiar duties of his own parish. Perhaps here 
-his visible success was not as great as might have been 
expected; the field was small, and had been already oc- 
cupied. Then it seemed for some years that a constant 
removal of families and individuals tried his faith. True, 
no year passed by that did not witness the profession of 



16 



MEMOIR. 



some in the Church, and the earnestness and solemnity of 
others already counted on the Lord's side ; but the links in 
the band of communicants were constantly breaking, either 
by death or removal, and the newly added soldiers of the 
cross only stepped into the vacant places ; there seemed no 
widening of the circle, nor any realization of the dream of 
his youth, that the Church should embrace within her 
sacred fold many who stood aloof, or who scoffed at her 
holy ways. 

The first days of July, 1849, he had been much in- 
terested in making preparations for taking the Sunday- 
school on its annual excursion of the Fourth, when one of 
his children was taken alarmingly ill. Having been tempted 
to preach three times on the previous Sunday, he had 
entered upon the week with a feeling of unusual exhaus- 
tion. This, with the fatigue and alarm incident upon his 
child's illness, doubtless produced the sudden and violent 
hemorrhage which on the morning of the Fourth distressed 
the hearts of the household. His first exclamation, after 
the rush of blood had subsided, was, " 'Tis the beginning of 
the end ! God's will be done." The effusion of blood con- 
tinued for more than a fortnight, lessening day by day, 
until it finally ceased ; most of this time he lay in a state 
of great prostration, and for a while it seemed doubtful 
whether he could recover. The language of his spirit was, 
"Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in Thy sight," 
and the one simple ground of acceptance before God, which 
he had constantly preached, the atonement of Christ, was, 
as in his last sickness, the staff on which he leaned. "After 
many days" strength began to return, and with it the hope 
of "getting back to work again " (a favorite phrase of his). 
The early autumn winds, however, produced a distressing 
cough, and he at length yielded to the advice of his phy- 
sician, to abandon all idea of resuming his duties, and seek 
once more a change of scene and climate. 

Thinking that his former absence had been injurious to 
the interests of the parish, he resolved to resign, so as to 
pave the way for an immediate successor; but although he 
was firmly convinced that this measure would be promotive 
of the prosperity of the Church, his people could not be in- 
duced to consent to a final leave-taking ; and the Bishop 



MEMOIR. 



17 



having promised to provide a substitute for the winter, he 
withdrew his resignation, and left Bellefonte with a promise 
to return when God should give him a greater measure of 
physical power. The constant sea-sickness of the short 
voyage to Charleston weakened him greatly, and by the 
time he reached Savannah, he was again prostrated with 
hemorrhage. The many discomforts and fatigues of travel- 
ling in the interior of Georgia and Alabama, after his re- 
covery from this attack, were severely felt by him ; and 
finding the weather damp and enervating when he arrived 
in Florida, he returned to the hill-country of Georgia; 
where, in the house of one clerical brother, and attended by 
the loving and gentle care of another, who had also come 
from the cold North in search of health, he spent the re- 
mainder of the winter. The reverent affection with which 
this latter friend regarded him, may be gathered from his 
words in the following incident: "The memory of his 
singular faithfulness," he says, "ought never to be per- 
mitted to die out. I remember many instances illustrative 
of it ; one in particular is often present to my mind. We 
were together on board one of the night-boats, on the 
Chatahoochee River ; Mr. Natt was lying in his state-room, 
weak in body, but more distressed in spirit, by the profane 
language and carousing of a party in the cabin. We were 
to leave in the morning; but, before the hour of leaving, 
he had sought and found nearly every member of the party, 
and had spoken seriously with each; one only remained 
whom he had not talked to ; that one he could not find ; 
but just as we were leaving the boat — I had my foot on 
the plank to go on shore — he saw the person in question. 
Walking up to him, and handing him a tract on 'Profane 
Swearing,' he asked him to read it. The man was a gen- 
tleman, and Mr. Natt's manner was so courteous and un- 
assuming, that it was impossible to have given offence; 
both bowed, and the tract was accepted. Now, there are 
few men, few clergymen even, who, in like circumstances, 
would have felt called upon thus to rebuke sin, very 
few who could have done it with such meekness of wis- 
dom." 

Returning by the land route to Philadelphia, too early in 
the spring of 1850, he took cold, so that on reaching his 



18 



MEMOIR. 



parish, he appeared little, if any, stronger than when he 
left. A few ineffectual attempts to preach, convinced him 
of his inability to perform his duties, and with the consent 
of the Bishop, he adopted the plan of writing short ser- 
mons for Sunday and week-day services, which were read 
by one of the wardens from the chancel. The people were 
satisfied with this ; but the pastor felt that this could be 
but a temporary expedient. It did not, and could not meet 
the wants of the flock, however their desire to retain him 
among them might make them contented with any arrange- 
ment which promised such a result. Despite their loving 
urgency to have him remain on any terms, he finally re- 
signed his position and again returned to his native city, 
under the painful impression that he had finished the course 
of his public ministry. Entire rest from the anxious care 
of a parish, as well as from all exciting effort, had a favor- 
able effect ; and with the exception of one slight attack of 
hemorrhage in January, he spent a much more comfortable 
winter than the last. 

In April of the year 1851, a request was made to him by 
some ladies in Mantua, West Philadelphia, to organize a 
Sunday-school there, and from that time, with an interval 
of a few weeks absence in the summer, he continued to 
superintend it. During his short absence from the city, he 
received two invitations to resume his duties as a parish 
minister; but doubting his physical ability to undertake 
the charge of a parish, and feeling much interested in the 
work begun at Mantua, he declined these overtures. 

After his return to the city, an invitation from the newly- 
organized parish of St. Andrew's, Mantua, to hold services 
in a school-room, preparatory to the erection of a church, 
of which he should be the Rector, was extended to him. 
To this he gave a conditional assent, depending upon his 
ability to fulfil the duties he might assume. No specific 
arrangements were made by either party, and until April 
of the following year he continued to hold one Sunday and 
one week-day service, beside the more frequent services 
which came with Lent and Easter, with a growing ability 
to conduct them without injury to his health. He had 
always felt a strong desire to see the old Church of St. 
Mark's, which had been destroyed by fire many years pre- 



MEMOIR. 



19 



vious, restored to its original holy use. The broken and 
picturesque walls had many times in the earlier part of his 
ministry, elicited a prayer and sigh, as he had glanced at 
them with the eye of a passing traveller. It was therefore 
with delight, that he heard of the opportunity of repur- 
chasing the site, which in the lapse of years had become 
alienated from the Church; and the wavering determina- 
tion to accept the Rectorship which had been proffered 
him was confirmed by this circumstance. From that time 
he devoted himself, mind, body, and spirit, to the task of 
resuscitating this old and decayed parish. 

In June, 1852, the church, now rebuilt, was opened for 
divine service, and thereafter on the Lord's day, morning 
and evening, prayer went up from its again hallowed walls, 
and the round of holy services which form the ecclesiasti- 
cal year, was duly presented to the people. It is a remark 
fully confirmed by Mr. Natt's experience in this most dif- 
ficult and trying period of his ministry, that to revive the 
Church where it has died out, particularly among a fluc- 
tuating population, is a much more protracted and dis- 
couraging work than to sow the divine seed in virgin soil. 
Through years of patient toil, with unflagging energy and 
untiring devotion to the private as well as public interests 
of the parish, he labored on. Once during those years, an 
urgent request from his old people to come back to them, 
tried his heart, and almost made him give up his later 
work; but resolved from the first to see the church in Man- 
tua fairly started and free from pecuniary embarrassments, 
he resisted the affectionate call of his old flock and labored 
on where he deemed that G-od had placed him. The con- 
gregation was mainly composed of persons with slender 
means ; and though its vestry numbered many among them 
of the more wealthy class, these men were contributors to, 
and worshippers in other churches, and could not, even had 
they been disposed, give the assistance and sympathy 
which could only be rendered by a local vestry. The dif- 
ficulty of raising funds for the payment of the church build- 
ing and all the painful vexations to which it gave rise, 
wearied and distressed him beyond all his former expe- 
rience; yet although at this time several overtures were 
made to him to seek more congenial positions, he turned a 



20 



MEMOIR, 



deaf ear to all solicitations, and resolved to abide in Mantua. 
Contributing himself the largest possible portion of his small 
income as an incentive to others, and exerting all the influ- 
ence he possessed among his personal friends, he had the 
comfort in June, 1854, of seeing the church consecrated by 
the Bishop, being now free from debt and fully secured to 
the corporation. 

For a time St. Andrew's gave promise of rapid increase ; 
but the opening of another church, nearer the residence of 
some, and the simultaneous removal of many of the active 
members of the congregation to more distant localities, les- 
sened the attendance very perceptibly, and his own health 
again failing, made it more difficult for him to bear "the 
burden and heat of the day." Repeated hemorrhages re- 
duced his strength, and often deprived him of the use of his 
voice for weeks together, and the effort, as well as the 
anxiety consequent upon the task of supplying the pulpit 
from Sunday to Sunday, seemed to exhaust him as much 
as the performance of the duty himself would have done. 
After the consecration of the church, the ladies had com- 
menced the work of raising funds for the erection of a par- 
sonage ; and to this, as well as to that of the church, he 
gave his earnest co-operation and interest, not by personal 
solicitations (for he always opposed the idea of a clergy- 
man's doing this), but by bringing the subject before those 
who might more properly undertake the trying work of 
collecting, rather than by his own demands on the purses 
of strangers, he gave time and thought and energy to the 
matter. Before he left Mantua, he had the pleasure of 
seeing a comfortable parsonage with a large school-room 
annexed, built on the church lot, and of knowing that, al- 
though the portion he and his family had contributed to it, 
rendered it of no pecuniary assistance to him, during the 
short time he resided in it, it was left as a comparatively 
light burden on the means of his successor. It was always 
a matter of regret to him, that the small mortgage upon it 
had not been paid off during his incumbency. 

He always attached much importance to the Lent and 
Passion week services, and throughout the whole of his 
ministry was in the habit of having daily prayers, and a 
course of sermons commemorative of our Lord's sufferings 



MEMOIR. 



21 



during this week, whenever he was able to preach. He 
had been most of the time unable to speak in public the 
winter preceding the final resignation of this parish, but as 
Lent approached, the thought of the coming season roused 
his energies, and he was enabled to pursue his usual course. 
But the second Sunday after Easter in 1859, a more ex- 
hausting hemorrhage than usual, occurring just before the 
hour of service, he was unable to go into the church ; and 
from that time until the autumn was seldom able to per- 
form any ministerial duty, though continuing to hold the 
oversight of the parish, and as far as possible to see that 
the pulpit was supplied. As during his missionary course, 
it had been his fixed rule never to break appointments, and 
for more than thirteen years only two such disappoint- 
ments had occurred to the expecting flock : one caused by 
sudden illness, the other by a fall of snow which rendered 
the roads impassable ; so while in Mantua, the church was 
closed but twice on the Lord's day during his pastorate. 

In October he resigned the parish, but as his place was 
not immediately supplied, he continued to be present at and 
assist in the services, and to look after the private interests 
of the members until the 1st of January, 1860, when his 
successor entered upon his duties. His last Sunday at 
Mantua proving cold and stormy, the fatigue and exposure 
induced a severe attack the next morning, and during the 
remainder of the winter he was almost entirely confined to 
his room. In the spring, he rallied again, and having re- 
ceived an earnest invitation from his old people to visit 
them, he took a journey to Bellefonte, receiving not only 
physical benefit from the change, but a soothing, cheering 
influence from the affection which everywhere greeted him. 
The following winter was one of comparative freedom from 
suffering and weakness ; occasionally he preached in small 
churches, but his physical powers were evidently unequal 
to these efforts, and he soon ceased to make them. 

After the war broke out, he became much interested in 
the distribution of books and tracts among soldiers, and 
spent most of the hours in which he was equal to the ex- 
ertion in visiting camps and hospitals ; and oftener in walk- 
ing the streets and addressing those he met. In the sum- 
mer of 1861, he made a journey through New England, 

3 



22 



MEMOIR. 



visiting camps as he had opportunity, and everywhere 
"sowing seed by the wayside." Though apparently much 
benefited by this summer jaunt, the following winter proved 
the most trying of his suffering life ; frequent and exhaust- 
ing attacks, confining him almost entirely to his room. But 
again summer drew nigh, and again he left the hot and 
dusty city to seek cooler and more quiet days in the homes 
of his friends. The summer was divided between the moun- 
tain districts of the Hudson and New Jersey. Increasing 
weakness prevented him from taking much exercise except 
in riding; he had often, however, after a summer of rest, 
been revived and strengthened by the bracing air of Octo- 
ber; when, therefore, on his return to Philadelphia, he ex- 
perienced only a diminution of his strength, his disappoint- 
ment and depression were extreme. Up to this time, though 
he had frequently expressed his conviction that his case 
was incurable, he had enjoyed the intervals of labor which 
had been given him, and had thought that there were many 
ways in which he could still preach Christ. But the thought 
of being laid aside as entirely useless, was very painful to 
him, and it was not until the end of the year that he aban- 
doned all hope of a partial recovery. 

The visits of clerical friends often refreshed and strength- 
ened him. Though sometimes unable to converse with 
them, he looked forward to such visits with pleasure, and 
always expressed a grateful sense of the kindness of those 
who thus remembered him. Naturally reticent of his more 
sacred feelings, he seldom conversed on his own spiritual 
state, and, when questioned, always spoke very humbly of 
his hopes. Once, when a clerical friend was asking of his 
condition, he said, "A sinner saved by grace, that is all 
that can be said about it, doctor." When one of his friends 
was about leaving the city for a time, and came to bid him 
adieu, saying, "We shall meet again in a few weeks, and 
then I hope to see you better," he pointed upward, and 
said, "There, not here; I shall not be long on earth." 
The reply was made, "I wish my chance was as good as 
yours, Mr. Natt." He looked disturbed, and turning round, 
said, " Tell him — /can't." The struggle of his feelings, with 
the weakness of his voice, was very great, and at .first his 
meaning was not understood, but after a moment's reflection 



MEMOIR. 



28 



the remark was made, " There is but one foundation for him, 
for us all, Mr. H — "That's it," he said, with earnest- 
ness. There was a pause, and then an effort : " once more," 
he said. The words of Scripture furnished the rejoinder, 
"The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." A 
bright, quick flash, almost of rapture, crossed his counte- 
nance, and with emphasis, which can never be forgotten, 
he replied, "That's it; it is enough." January was a 
month of comparative ease ; but the sufferings of the last 
week of his life were indescribable. He was only able to 
speak occasionally, being most of the time greatly op- 
pressed for breath. When utterance was permitted him, it 
was but to express a sense of his unworthiness, and to cling 
to the Cross for help. 

About 8 p.m., on the evening of February 3d, the cough 
suddenly ceased, and the comparative ease enabled him to 
talk a little more ; he requested to have the usual family 
prayers in his room, and chose the Twenty-third Psalm to 
be read. After the family had retired, he was asked 
whether he had selected that as appropriate to his condi- 
tion; his reply was, "I thought so;" and as the fourth 
verse was repeated, he took it up and repeated it slowly 
with the speaker : " Yea, though I walk through the valley 
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil : for Thou art 
with me ; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." He 
spoke with difficulty, repeating each word with a pause be- 
tween. Some reference was made to his ministry, — it be- 
ing that day the completion of the twenty-fourth year of 
his priesthood. "All comes short," he said; then refer- 
ring to his social life, added: "God has been very good to 
us, through all these years." The physician had advised 
that all should be kept quiet about him, in the expectation 
of his sleeping after the vigils of the three preceding nights. 
In the persuasion that there was no immediate danger, ar- 
rangements had been made to have the communion admin- 
istered the next day, by his friend, the Rev. Dr. Hare, who, 
on the preceding Christmas, had thus broken to him "the 
bread of life." He was now alone with his nurse ; yet as "the 
time of his departure drew nigh," as the breath came quicker 
and shorter, the one solitary watcher feared and trembled, 
and longed for the presence of his children : "Let them sleep," 



24 



MEMOIR. 



was his answer to her repeated requests to have them 
called. "I need sleep, and so do you; we all need rest; 
beside, w T e want to prepare our thoughts for the morning, 
when we shall receive the Holy Communion." After mid- 
night he appeared to his anxious companion to be failing 
rapidly, though he was, with uplifted eyes and clasped 
hands, evidently communing with his God. Gently touch- 
ing him, he was asked: "May I not call the children?" 
After another refusal, he at last consented; and then for 
the first time the meaning seemed to burst upon him. He 
had all his life a constitutional dread of the last struggle, 
and had often, in conversation, expressed the feeling that, 
however strong our hopes of eternity might be, human na- 
ture must shrink from the fearful conflict. Knowing this, 
therefore, the calmness with which he said, "I did not think 
death was so near," was wonderful. Not a muscle of his 
face stirred ; the bright, uplifted eyes still looked as into 
the far-off heavens, and the clasped hands remained in the 
attitude of intercession ; and when he w T as told that the 
physician thought the cessation of the cough was premoni- 
tory of the near approach of death, he bowed his head, and 
said, "It is well." A brief exhortation to his children to 
"love and cling to their Saviour," words of earnest faith- 
fulness to his partner, a kind farewell to his sister who 
was now with him, short messages to absent relatives, fol- 
lowed at intervals, and he seemed to rest satisfied. Still 
the uplifted eye was undimmed. After a short time he 
asked, in an excited tone and without the pause between 
the words as heretofore, for an absent relative. On being 
told that he was not in the house, he asked that he might 
be sent for. While the messenger was gone, he remained 
with the same intelligent and pleading expression in the 
eye, the same clasped hands in prayer ; but his breath was 
now so rapidly failing that he was told there was not time 
for his relative to arrive, and was asked if he could not tell 
those by his bedside what he wanted of him. "Oh ! yes," 
he replied, in a clear, distinct whisper. " Tell him, tell him 
I beg him to seek God without delay." — "Without delay," 
he repeated again. Then, as if the utterance of that last 
brief sermon had been too much for expiring nature, he 
slowly closed his eyes and "fell asleep" just before 2 a.m., 
February 4th, 1863. 



MEMOIR. 



25 



So' habitually was he silent, both as regards his physical 
trials and the struggles which he had with outward diffi- 
culties, that few knew the singular disinterestedness of his 
ministerial life. One aim and object he had, to serve faith- 
fully, in whatever sphere God had placed him, the Church 
of which he was an humble minister. He never hesitated 
to say or do anything which he thought duty. He never 
considered his own ease, or the comfort of his family, a 
thing to be weighed in the balance with what he deemed 
the interests of the parish, or the Church general. If ob- 
stacles were in the way, he went through them, and not 
round them. How far, in individual cases, it might have 
been best to have consulted expediency, we cannot now 
say; but this determination, remarkable when found in so 
weak a frame, was one of his strongest traits, and enabled 
him often to conquer when others w^ould have given up. 
Through the whole course of his ministry his support was 
very small; yet he never allowed this question to enter 
into the consideration of the acceptance or refusal of any 
proposition, or to influence his removal from either parish. 
Neither had he, at any time, the least ambition to shine, to 
be talked about, to hold a higher place. With abilities and 
energy which would have qualified him for a far different 
sphere, he steadily and from the first put aside all motives 
of the kind as unworthy the consideration of the soldier of 
the cross. In this, too, he was remarkable ; and there were 
times when his friends thought he carried his views on this 
point too far, — so as even to lessen his opportunities of 
usefulness; but, since all is over — the battle of life past, 
who shall say that he erred in thus fighting "the good fight 
of faith ?" 

His views of "worldly conformity" were strict, and the 
expression of them often brought him into unpleasant col- 
lision with friends and relatives ; but in this, too, he never 
wavered; maintaining to his dying day, that "total absti- 
nence" from ensnaring indulgences and amusements, and a 
very moderate partaking of even harmless social recreation, 
was the only way to keep our hearts "above the world," 
and to "witness a good profession" before a cavilling com- 
munity. He had naturally a turn for humor, and the 
keenest sense of the ludicrous; but thought their indul- 

3* 



26 



MEMOIR. 



gence so inconsistent with the dignity and solemnity of 
the "holy office," that, except with his children, he seldom 
allowed them to have free play. Some playful effusions in 
verse testify to an ability for writing of this kind which 
would scarcely have been expected from the usual serious- 
ness of his deportment and his devotion to grave studies. 

In preaching, his manner was usually quiet, but the 
conviction that his message was "the truth of God," so 
pervaded his whole countenance and expression that his 
very earnestness compelled attention. His habit was to 
study his subject and then write rapidly, almost without 
any pause, for hours together. He seldom extemporized; 
but when the necessity arose, found no difficulty in ex- 
pression. His sermons not being intended for any eyes 
but his own, were written with the freedom of one 
who never expected them to become subjects of criti- 
cism. For some years of his life it was his habit to de- 
stroy them as soon as preached. He would often say, "I 
had a glorious text ; but, oh ! how I failed to bring out 
its fulness !" So sensible was he of their imperfections, 
that he often requested, during the days of sickness, that 
they should be burned. The larger portion of them were 
thus, in obedience to his wishes, committed to the flames. 
Of the few that remain, this selection has been made, in 
deference to the opinion of one whom in life he regarded 
not only with the churchman's rule, "obey in all things 
your bishop," but with the loyalty of a heart that ever 
bowed in reverence to "whatsoever things were pure, 
whatsoever things were holy." Thus it has been supposed 
that he would have yielded to this wish, though he deemed 
the mission of his words was over when his own voice was 
silent in the grave. 

One who knew him well writes: "Without attempting 
anything like a complete description of his singularly pure 
and noble character, I cheerfully accede to the Bishop's 
wish. I have often thought that his occupation, on the 
occasion of my first introduction to him, might be taken as 
a sample of the spirit of earnestness and meek condescen- 
sion which characterized his whole ministry. I found him 
in his study, surrounded by books, but engaged in the slow 
and tedious task of teaching a blind negro boy to read. 



MEMOIR, 



27 



His white and delicate hand was guiding the dark and 
rough fingers of his pupil over the large raised letters of 
the Bible, while the boy's sightless eyes were turned up to 
his teacher with an expression upon his face of surprise 
and pleasure which indicated that some light was dawning 
on his darkened mind. This was his employment when 
our acquaintance began, and the interest manifested in that 
poor negro boy, and the assiduity and patience with which 
he sought to open his mind to the light of eternal truth, was 
but an illustration of the purpose and spirit that animated 
him even to the end. No better witness of this faithful 
spirit could be found than his persevering industry in 
writing sermons. There was nothing he seemed to love 
to do better than this. There was nothing he so much 
disliked as an old sermon. He would never tolerate the 
thought of a minister of the gospel being 'written out;' 
and claimed that with every advancing week he was able, 
or ought to be able, to write better than before. Few men, 
even those of vigorous health, have so rarely repeated a 
sermon as he. With all his weakness and suffering, he 
continued to write on as long as he had strength to bear 
him to the pulpit. Oftentimes, when any other man would 
have been in bed, he was at his desk preparing some new 
thought, presenting some new view of truth or duty, 
cheered by the hope that this time the arrow would strike 
the mark that all others had missed. Though he had com- 
mitted so many sermons to the flames, he still left sixteen 
hundred; and despite his many years of feeble health, and 
exhausting missionary and parochial labors, he found the 
time and strength to write nearly two thousand sermons; 
a testimony of no common devotion, and a witness of the 
zeal which consumed him. 

"His 'church principles' will perhaps be shown by a re- 
mark of a clerical brother of somewhat different views. 
'Brother Natt,' said he, 'does surely take a man to 
Christ, but he takes him through the Church.'' Such was 
his churchmanship. No man preached Christ more fully, 
more earnestly, and more lovingly than he. And no man 
believed more thoroughly in the divine organization and 
authority of the Church at whose altars he ministered. 
This was part and parcel of the Gospel which he believed 



MEMOIR. 



himself commissioned to bear to men. His work was to 
speak 'concerning Christ and the Church. 1 His charity 
for those who walked not with him, and for those, too, 
who could not feel kindly toward his own opinions, never 
failed ; while he never failed to believe in their truth, and 
ultimate triumph over every form of error and separation. 
His lot through life was cast where the Church to which 
he was devoted was a small and unimportant body, strug- 
gling against prejudice and opposition. But however slow 
its progress, and however others might weary in the work 
or despair of success, he was always hopeful and ever 
ready to say : 

Sure as Thy truth shall last, 

To Zion shall he given 
The brighest glories earth can yield, 

And brighter bliss of heaven. 

"He was thrown, in the later years of his life, much 
among the clergy; and the remark was more than once 
made by some of these that, though providentially laid 
aside from the duties of the pulpit, he was still in a most 
effective way 'preaching to preachers.' There are not a 
few of such, who consider their acquaintance and inter- 
course with him to have been among the greatest privi- 
leges of their lives. Happy, indeed, are they who caught 
his spirit, and are enabled to walk as he walked. He has 
gone to his rest and reward, but the savor of his life lin- 
gers still among many brethren, who are content to say, 
' May our spirits only rest with his !'" 

"My acquaintance wuth him," writes another, "com- 
menced in the spring of 1841, and lasted till he died. During 
the ten years that I knew him as the Rector of St. John's, 
Bellefonte, his health was delicate; often unfitting him, in 
the judgment of friends, for the discharge of his duties; 
but rarely permitted, by himself, to prevent his punctual 
fulfilment of appointments in his missionary district. In- 
deed his zeal and energy in the prosecution of the Master's 
work exceeded, altogether transcended any instance of cler- 
ical devotion that has ever fallen under my observation. 
Of a slight frame, with strong tendency to pulmonary dis- 
ease, — which generally inclines persons to inactive habits, 



MEMOIR, 



29 



— Mr. Natt exhibited all the industry and incurred all the 
hardships which characterized men of the firmest health in 
pursuit of wealth and business. Yet he was animated by 
no selfish motives. He sought neither wealth, nor fame, 
nor ease, but only the salvation of souls. 

"A man of refined tastes, and of polished education and 
manners, he was fitted to shine in the highest circles of 
society, and might have accumulated a competency, if not 
a large fortune, in any of the secular professions. A re- 
markably fine belles-lettres scholar, he was peculiarly 
qualified for literary criticism, and might have edited a 
Review or Magazine with great effect and profit. As an 
instructor in the higher classics, he could readily have 
found profitable employment ; and so in many other occu- 
pations which would have rewarded him liberally, without 
wasting so rapidly his small physical strength. 

"But all these pursuits, and whatever else the world had 
to offer, he thrust aside, and consecrated himself, body, 
soul, and mind, to the single though sublime work of 
preaching the gospel of the Son of God. That he had 
been touched by a live coal from the altar of Divine love, 
no observer could doubt. He moved quietly among men 
who were wholly given up to the worship of false gods ; 
but there was a power in his presence w T hich made itself 
felt. His face, his eye, his voice, all spoke of the great 
work that had been done in his own soul, and all appealed 
with touching eloquence to the inner life of every man he 
met. I have seen the profane and drunken man abashed 
into silence by a word and a look from him. 

"As a preacher, he was simple and plain, but often 
grand, and always earnest and impressive. Though his 
voice was feeble, and he affected none of the arts of ora- 
tory, yet his style was so clear, and his delivery so earnest, 
that no listener ever grew weary or went away empty. 

"Believing firmly in the doctrine of Apostolic Succession, 
not only that 'it is evident unto all men, diligently reading 
Holy Scriptures and ancient authors, that from the Apos- 
tles' times there have been these three orders of Ministers 
in Christ's Church : Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, but 
also that the order of Bishops has been continued by tact- 
ual succession from the Apostles down to our present 



30 



MEMOIR. 



Father in God,' he rejected with loathing the undue eleva- 
tion of ritualistic practices, and clung with tenacity, and 
taught others to cling, to faith in Christ as the alone 
ground of salvation. He looked upon the Church as the 
'Pillar and Ground' of the truth, and he accepted the tes- 
timony of such traditions as the Church had universally 
acknowledged ; but no man ever received the sixth, sev- 
enth, or eleventh articles, and indeed the whole thirty- nine, 
with a more cordial and honest subscription than he. 

"When declining health obliged him to abandon his parish 
in West Philadelphia, he betook himself to personal visita- 
tion of the poor, the sick, and ignorant in the hospitals, 
lanes, and alleys of this city. The last time I saw him out 
of his sick chamber, I met him with a satchel on his arm 
laden with tracts and good books for soldiers in hospitals, 
and others who needed such attentions. 

"It has been my lot to know many clergymen, and to 
have much intercourse with them, but I never have known 
one in whom so little selfishness and such utter consecra- 
tion to his work were apparent as in Mr. Natt. He was 
no self-seeker; he coveted no man's silver or gold; he 
trimmed no sails to catch a popular breeze ; he persecuted 
nobody for opinion's sake; he courted not the rich; he 
spared not himself. He loved his ivhole country, and 
looked upon all his fellow-citizens as brethren ; and he be- 
lieved, what too many clergymen have proved that they do 
not believe, that 'it is good for brethren to dwell together 
in unity,' and that 'he that hateth his brother is worse 
than a murderer.' 

"For the good example of such a man and minister, the 
whole church should thank God. Though he rests from 
his labors, his works will follow him. Those of us whose 
privilege it was to know him intimately, will cherish his 
memory with life-long affection ; and will tell to others how 
he lived, and labored, and suffered for Christ's sake ; and 
we will print a volume of his sermons, and send it out to 
speak for him, now that his voice is hushed in death. It 
it be pervaded with the unction of his spirit, it may win 
souls to Christ to be additional stars in the crown of this 
good man's rejoicing." 



SERMONS. 



SEEMOK" I. 

SPIRITUAL BLINDESS. 

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have 
need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and 
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. — Rev. iii. 17. 

These wards describe a case of what has been fitly 
termed spiritual lunacy. It is very common for per- 
sons who have lost their reason, to adopt the strangest 
notions respecting themselves ; to fancy they are rich, 
when in fact they are poor ; that they are well, when 
in fact they are sick; that they are masters of their 
own actions, when they are under constant supervi- 
sion and restraint. And often, even when reason 
has not been unsettled, delusions quite as great are 
confidently cherished. Who has not heard the indi- 
vidual dying of consumption deceiving himself, un- 
consciously, to the very last; talking of recovery, 
when every one but himself perceived and knew 
that he could not recover ! Men are liable to make 
mistakes for want of reason, and despite their rea- 
son; to adopt conclusions concerning themselves as 
far from true as possible. This the Laodiceans had 

(31) 



22 



SERMONS. 



done. They said one thing of themselves, when 
another and directly opposite thing was true; and 
they believed what they said: they were firmly per- 
suaded that they had a true understanding of their 
own case. And yet the Apostle St. John, by the ex- 
press command of Jesus Christ, wrote a letter to the 
Laodiceans to tell them they certainly were mis- 
taken: that what they thought and said of them- 
selves was not so. "And unto the Angel of the 
Church of the Laodiceans," the letter was addressed 
to the angel or chief minister of the church, to the 
bishop, as we now term the corresponding officer; 
"unto the angel of the Church of the Laodiceans 
write ; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and 
true witness, the beginning of the creation of 
God;" that is, these things saith Jesus Christ: "I 
know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: 
I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because 
thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will 
spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou say est, I 
am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of 
nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, 
and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." 

Was not this a solemn and a fearful thing to be 
told by God the Saviour; "Thou hast deceived trry- 
self, thou art utterly mistaken about thine own 
case ?" And it was no trifling or harmless mistake. It 
was not a mistake about their worldly circumstances. 
It was a mistake about their condition as accounta- 
ble and immortal creatures. A person who, though 
poor in this world's wealth, was yet, as the Scripture 
speaks, rich in faith and heir of the kingdom which 



SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. 



88 



God has promised to them that love Him; such a 
person might truly say: "I am rich, and increased 
with goods, and have need of nothing." But what- 
ever might be his worldly circumstances, if God 
were not his friend, he could not say this. And 
God was not the friend of the Laodiceans; for they 
were not what they ought to have been. They were 
lukewarm in their religion ; thought very little about 
it: cared very little for it: showed no earnestness or 
zeal in doing anything it required. They called 
Christ Master and Lord, and yet did not the things 
that He said. They professed to believe the wonder- 
ful truths : that the eternal Gocl became man ; that He 
died to save sinners: that heaven or hell was before 
them; and yet they were lukewarm ! Christians were 
lukewarm ! so that their Saviour threatened to re- 
ject them with loathing and disgust! And yet these 
lukewarm Christians, in actual and imminent dan- 
ger of being rejected by Christ; these Christians 
neither hot nor cold, had no fears for themselves; 
thought all was well with them; probably would 
not have believed that they were mistaken about 
their own case, unless they had been told so under 
circumstances of such deep solemnity. It took a 
direct message from God their Saviour to undeceive 
them, if even that did so in every instance. The 
Apostle was directed by the lips of their glorified 
Redeemer to write to them, and to set them before 
themselves, as he knew them to be. He to whom 
all hearts are open, and from whom no secrets are 
hid; who knew what they thought, what they said 
in their hearts, as exactly as what they spake or did: 

4 



34 



SERMONS. 



He bade his Apostle write to them: "Because thou 
sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and 
have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou 
art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, 
and naked." 

Lukewarmness in religion and self-deceit, — luke- 
warmness and self-ignorance, — these, our Saviour 
tells us, exist together. Where one is found, we 
may expect the other. Lukewarm Christians will 
be under no uneasiness or anxiety about themselves; 
if they think at all or much of their own cases, it 
will be to think well of them: they will say or think 
of themselves what yet is not true, what in fact is 
the very reverse of the truth. And even when they 
are in extreme peril of being rejected by Christ; 
when, if they only saw themselves as He sees them, 
they would be alarmed at their own guilt and dan- 
ger; they will feel well satisfied that they are what 
they are. Oh ! how does it behoove each one of you 
Christians, to ask: "Lord, is it I? Am I lukewarm 
in my religion? Am I lukewarm in Thy service? 
Am I self-satisfied and self-deceived?" These are 
questions you must answer for yourselves. You 
must take your Lord's portrait of the Laodiceans, 
and consider whether it may not also be yours. 

Lukewarmness is no such rare and improbable 
thing now, that any Christian should feel encouraged 
to say, it is not possible that I am lukewarm. There 
is more danger, there is higher probability in our 
day, that those who name the name of Christ should 
be lukewarm, than that they should be either hot or 
cold. And whoever will seriously consider what 



SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. 



35 



our Saviour says of this offence and fault; in what 
forcible words He expresses His loathing and detes- 
tation of it, and threatens to reject those who are 
guilty of it, and pictures their sad and dangerous 
delusions; whoever will seriously consider those 
things, will search and examine himself, and that 
not lightly and after the manner of a dissembler 
with God: he will pray God to open his eyes, that 
he may see ; to increase his faith ; to bring his heart 
and life more and more under the influence of the 
great truths he professes to believe; to make him 
more sensible of his duties, and more earnest and 
zealous in discharging them. Our Saviour has said: 
"If any man will do His will, he shall know of the 
doctrine, whether it be of God." A right apprehen- 
sion, a just appreciation of religious truth can be 
acquired only by the willing and obedient. They 
who give their hearts to God; who believe in the 
Lord Jesus Christ; who set in earnest about the 
work of doing the will of God: these are the per- 
sons who have the clearest, and deepest, and firmest 
convictions that the doctrine is of God. A man 
may stand all his life arguing and disputing about 
the question which Almighty God has assured him 
can speedily and satisfactorily be settled another 
way: "If any man will do His will," — that will 
bring him to a sound conclusion, — "he shall know 
of the doctrine, whether it be of God." And he 
shall know of himself: whoever is really in earnest 
to show himself approved unto God, will fall into 
no such self-deceit as the Laodiceans did. The far- 
ther an individual is removed from lukewarmness; 



36 



SERMONS. 



the more he is fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, 
the less will he be in danger of deceiving his own 
heart. He who is bent upon doing the will of the 
Lord, whenever and just so far as he can ascertain 
what the will of the Lord is; the earnest-minded, 
warm-hearted Christian, young or old, will not be 
subject to the dread rebuke, "Because thou sajest, 
I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need 
of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, 
and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." 

Now, if it was found necessary to address Chris- 
tians in such terms; if they had fallen into such a 
condition of self-deception and self-ignorance, what 
is it reasonable to expect must be the case with those 
who are not Christians? — the eyes of whose under- 
standings have never yet been opened to see them- 
selves as God sees them: will they have no false 
views of their own character and condition? Will 
they labor under no mistakes? Will they be in no 
danger of saying one thing of themselves, while yet 
another and entirely contrary thing is true? Why 
did the Laodiceans do this? Was it not for reasons 
which exist in a stronger degree, in the cases of 
those who have never even begun to know and at- 
tend to the things belonging to their everlasting 
peace? There is an hereditary blindness; a blind- 
ness not of the bodily eye, not of the intellectual 
vision; but as the Apostle expresses it, a blindness 
of the heart. The individual who can look out upon 
every scene of beauty and grandeur in the visible 
world; who can see things as they are there; who, 
with the eye of a discriminating mind, can look upon 



SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS, 



37 



all things that pertain to this life, and see things 
as they are here; that same individual may be as 
much in the dark about himself, may as little know 
what he really is, what God thinks of him, what his 
real standing with his Maker, as the infant knows 
of the truths of science. 

My brethren, one great difficulty in preaching the 
gospel is to say what is true, and yet at the same 
time not to seem extravagant and unreasonable; to 
set forth what the word of God does teach, and yet 
not to appear to be making extreme and overstrained 
statements. And never is this difficulty felt more 
than when the effort is made to show men to them- 
selves; to enlighten the understanding of those who 
are not Christians with the light of a scriptural view 
of their own character and condition. They think 
they know themselves. The imputation of slight 
mistakes, of trifling misapprehensions as to their 
real state, they may readily admit. But to be told 
that they do not know themselves; that they are all 
wrong in their judgments about themselves; that 
they must undergo a total revolution in their opin- 
ions and feelings respecting themselves; that their 
apprehensions of their own condition are in open 
conflict with God's representations, — to be told all this, 
cannot but excite surprise, even if it do not awaken 
stronger feeling. Yet it is the uniform representa- 
tion of God's word. The text is in point: "Because 
thou say est, I am rich, and increased with goods, 
and have need of nothing; and knowest not that 
thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and 

blind, and naked." This is true — true to the letter 

4* 



33 



SERMONS. 



— of every one present whose self-knowledge has 
not yet taught him his need of a Divine Saviour, 
and led him, as a sinner, in penitence and faith to 
the cross of Jesus Christ. 

There is such a thing as dying of a spiritual con- 
sumption, and yet keeping up the fancy of safety and 
the hope of recovery to the last: that is, an individual 
whose condition in the sight of God may be a condi- 
tion of great guilt and great danger, may adhere to 
the notion that his case is not a bad or a dangerous 
one to the very last. And this is the fact with every 
individual who has not fled to the cross to find sal- 
vation there. He cannot know himself, or he would 
have done so. His eyes cannot really be opened to 
his true condition, or he would have done so. He 
has some way of satisfying himself that he is better 
off than the word of God represents him to be ; on 
some ground or other, he is saying to himself, "I 
am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of 
nothing." He never has been convinced, he never 
has felt that he is a bankrupt in the sight of God. 
He has some stock of virtue; some stock of good 
deeds; some points of character which render it 
impossible that he should look unto Jesus, and say 
from his heart, " Other refuge have I none: hangs 
my helpless soul on thee." He is not sensible that 
he needs any other refuge— any refuge at all. He 
has the secret feeling that God will endorse man's 
good opinion of him, or his good opinion of him- 
self. He may not deny, perhaps he freely admits it 
to be his belief, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, 
and the Saviour of* the world: that all who shall 



SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. 



39 



finally be saved, will be saved through Him and for 
His sake. But he has no sense of his own personal 
need of Christ. He knows that his house must have 
a proper foundation, and he would not trust his life 
to dwell in one that had not. But that foundation, 
other than which, as the word of God declares, can 
no man lay; that foundation he is not resting upon: 
"Jesus Christ, and him crucified. " He is like a man 
with eyes, who says he has no need of the light, and 
does not use the light; who admits that the light is 
very good, and very beautiful, and very useful; that 
others no doubt find it very necessary and very ben- 
eficial to them ; but does not seem to have any clear 
and keen sense of the need of it in his own case. 

Multitudes of lost and ruined souls, who need a 
Saviour as absolutely as the eye needs light, have no 
sense of that need, and do not use that Saviour 
whose name is the only name given under heaven 
whereby we must be saved. You know what it is 
in the relationships of this world to have a friend, 
and to use that friend in extricating yourself from 
ruinous difficulties. Christ's office toward sinners is 
that of such a friend; and all who truly know them- 
selves, whose eyes are really opened to their own 
guilt and danger, use Him as such a friend. All 
others do not; and they do not, because, in sub- 
stance, they say, "I am rich, and increased with 
goods, and have need of nothing;" because they 
are in the dark about their real state, and think one 
thing of themselves, while another and a very dif- 
ferent thing is true. Here is a simple, infallible test 
whether you agree with Almighty God in your view 



40 



SERMONS. 



of your own cases: ""What think ye of Christ" in 
your hearts? What is your practical apprecia- 
tion of Him? "What does the story of your lives 
tell that you think of Him? He is God your 
Saviour. He was sent into the world to save sin- 
ners; neither is there salvation in any other. He 
says Himself, "I am the way. the truth, and the 
life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me." 
Have you indeed received Him as such? To them 
that believe. He is precious. Has He become so to 
you? More than father or mother, or son or 
daughter, or houses or lands? If not. if the Lord 
who bought you; who alone can save you from your 
sins; whom Almighty God has made it your duty to 
believe in, and obey; if He have not yet taken real 
possession of your hearts, it can only be because 
you have no such sense of your guilt aud danger as 
would extort the cry, '-Lord, save me, or I perish!" 
God's description of you is the truth of the case: 
"Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, 
and have need of nothing;" and, if that part of the 
description holds good, the other must, too: "and 
knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, 
and poor, and blind, and naked." 

What! you may be ready to say; I in such a con- 
dition! I, so respected! by many, so beloved! with 
so many sources of happiness open to me — in myself 
— in my family — in society ! I, who have such success 
in life, who enjoy myself so much, who have a reputa- 
tion for sagacity, and have made my way in the world 
thus far so energetically — I! "wretched, and miser- 
able, and poor, and blind, and naked!" Possibly 



SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. 



41 



it may be so — in some sense hidden from my view; 
but certainly I neither perceive, nor feel it to be so ! 
"Well, that is just what God say 3. His declaration 
agrees precisely with what you admit to be the fact. 
You say you do not know that such is your condi- 
tion. His words are : " Thou sayest, I am rich, and 
increased with goods, and have need of nothing; 
and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miser- 
able, and poor, and blind, and naked all literally 
true, in a spiritual sense; not in a figurative sense: 
for a spiritual sense is as real as a natural sense — all 
literally true in a spiritual sense — true of the soul 
and its condition. The condition of the body, of 
the intellect, of all the outward worldly circum- 
stances may be flourishing and prosperous; but the 
condition of the soul of every man and woman, who 
is not in Christ; who has not really received Christ 
Jesus the Lord, is precisely what God declares it to 
be: a condition of wretchedness, and misery, and 
poverty, and blindness, and nakedness. 

This is how you would appear to God; how you 
would feel yourselves to be, if you should go out of 
your mortal bodies; you who have not yet made 
your peace with God, who have not yet washed your 
robes and made them white in the blood of the 
Lamb. It was because the world was a world of 
just such "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and 
blind, and naked" sinners, that God sent His Son 
into the world. And you are and must be just such 
still, if you have not known and believed in the Son 
of God as the Saviour of just such — as the Saviour 
of yourself as one of them. "Why, suppose that by 



42 



SERMONS. 



an extraordinary combination of circumstances you 
should suddenly be stripped of everything in this 
world you have or care for; that by one appalling 
blow, every source of earthly happiness should be 
destroyed; that you should be left without a rela- 
tive or friend; without wealth, or even the means 
of living; without a home; blind, and desolate, and 
deserted, — would you find any difficulty, under 
such circumstances, in admitting that you were 
"wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and 
naked?" And would not your death to-night put 
you in just such circumstances? Take away all 
that you have or hope for in this world, and what 
have you left? Take away all those temporal bless- 
ings and possessions that make you think you are 
not in the pitiable condition described in the text, — ■ 
come out, as it were, from under those obscuring 
outward circumstances, — and where would be your 
happiness? Where would be your hopes? Where 
would be your title or your qualifications to dwell- 
in that home where all are Christ's— where none are, 
or can be, but those who, on earth, took Christ to 
be theirs ? 

It is a great, a real, though, for the present, it 
may be an unfelt wretchedness, "not to be at peace 
with God;" not to have the heart to love and serve 
Him; not to rejoice in the great things Christ hath 
done for our souls; not to have a real concern for 
their interests and destiny; still to be carnally 
minded, which is death, instead of being spiritually 
minded, which is life and peace. It is a real and 
great, though it be a yet unfelt wretchedness, to be 



SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. 



43 



living in such a state that death would put an end 
to all our happiness and comfort; make us sensible 
that between us and God and heaven there was a 
great gulf fixed; awake in us a remorse and despair 
that would never cease to gnaw, and subject us to 
that fire of divine indignation that would never cease 
to burn. It is a real poverty to be without an in- 
terest in Him, who, "though he was rich, yet for 
our sakes became poor, that we through His pov- 
erty might be rich." It is a real blindness not to 
see the things which belong to our eternal peace. 
It is a real nakedness not to have on the wedding- 
garment required by God in Holy Scripture; to be 
devoid of the protection which the atoning blood of 
Christ affords to the penitent and believing sinner, 
and of that holiness without which no man shall 
see the Lord. 

And such is and must be the condition of every 
one who has not yet had a bad enough opinion of 
his own spiritual state to have a heart-sense of his 
need of Christ; of his need of forgiveness, and di- 
vine grace and strength. He is like the prodigal 
son before he came to himself; before he took a 
true view of his wretchedness, and was determined 
by it to arise and go to his father. And what he did, 
is just what every one in the like condition ought 
to do: just what our Lord Jesus Christ bids every 
such one to do. His words are: "I counsel thee 
to buy of me, gold tried in the fire, that thou may- 
est be rich ; and white raiment, that thou mayest be 
clothed and the shame of thy nakedness do not ap- 
pear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou 



44 



SERMONS, 



mayest see." Christ is the only resource for the 
spiritually poor, and naked, and blind. His instruc- 
tions, His atonement, His Spirit, — these are their 
only hope. If they will come unto Him, they will 
have life, forgiveness for the past, grace for the 
future, an abundant entrance, finally, into His ever- 
lasting and glorious kingdom. If they will not 
come unto Christ; if they adhere to the thoughts 
and feelings which inspire them with the persuasion 
that they have no indispensable need of Him, then 
■ — so is the word of God — they " shall not see Life; 
but the wrath of God abideth on them." 

Now, my brethren; ye who at least are certain of 
this one fact, that you do not regard yourselves as 
Christians; what have you heard? You have heard 
that while you say one thing of yourselves, a very 
different thing is true. You have heard what is af- 
firmed to be your actual spiritual condition, described 
by the strongest terms. You have been told that 
you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and 
blind, and naked; not in your worldly circum- 
stances; not in your bodily condition; not in any 
other respect, but this one of your spiritual state. 
You have been told that, in reference to God and 
the future world, you are wretched, and miserable, 
and poor, and blind, and naked. It is a solemn and 
responsible thing to tell any one so: not the less sol- 
emn and responsible because it is said in a sermon, 
and said to a congregation. If I should go to you, 
one by one, and say the like thing to you, of your 
condition, in any other respect; if, for instance, I 
should say to you that, as a parent, or as a citizen, or 



SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. 



45 



as a neighbor, or as a man of business, you were 
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and 
naked, — you would consider that I was using lan- 
guage that ought to be entirely borne out by facts, 
to justify my using it. And if you believed that I was 
not given to speak unadvisedly with my lips ; care- 
ful never needlessly to offend; accustomed to say 
only what I firmly believed to be true; and never to 
say that, if I thought another would be pained by it, 
unless somehow I felt bound to say it; you would 
immediately conclude, on my using such language; 
either he is laboring under some misapprehension, 
or he has taken a true view of my case, which thus 
far has escaped my notice. The very fact of my 
thus speaking would make you feel that it was due 
to me, due to yourself, to form some judgment as to 
its truth and its applicability. 

It is equally true and of vaster consequence in 
the present instance. What has been said is either 
true or false: either does apply to you, or does not. 
If it is false and inapplicable, then certainly great 
injustice has been done you: but if it be true and 
applicable; if it is, indeed, the judgment of the in- 
fallible word of God upon your case; if you would 
endorse every word that has been said of you this 
day, could you review it, to-night, from amid the 
realities of the eternal world; if such is the true state 
of facts; that the day of judgment will show that, up 
to the present time, your spiritual condition has 
been one of wretchedness, and misery, and poverty, 
and blindness, and nakedness; then you have been 

5 



46 



SERMONS. 



told what it infinitely concerns you to consider, and 
what should lead you, icithout delay, to seek to relieve 
yourself from so sad and dangerous a condition. 
Will you not at once, then, attend to the things 
which belong to your everlasting peace, ere they be 
hidden from your eyes forever ? 



SERMON n. 



THE SPIRIT'S STRIFE WITH MAN. 

And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for 
that he also is flesh : yet his days shall be an hundred and 
twenty years. — Genesis, vi. 3. 

We read of the Spirit of God in almost the first 
verse of the Bible, in the account of the Creation : 
"And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the 
waters." In the iftcene Creed we say: "And I be- 
lieve in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, 
who proceecleth from the Father and the Son ; w r ho 
with the Father and the Son together is worshipped 
and glorified; who spake by the prophets" — "by 
the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been 
since the world began," as Zacharias, in his hymn, 
declared. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophe- 
sied, as St. Jude writes, saying, "Behold the Lord 
cometh;" and isfoah prophesied, foretelling the 
flood years before it came upon the world of the 
ungodly. And there may have been other prophets 
raised up by God, in the early history of mankind, 
of whom, and whose labors, it has not pleased God 
to cause any record to be made in Holy Scripture. 

But, besides speaking by the prophets, inspiring 
them to be preachers of truth and righteousness and 
to foretell future events; besides doing this, the 

(4T) 



48 



SERMONS. 



Holy Spirit also worked in fallen, sinful men and 
women, to will and to do of His good pleasure. If 
Adam and Eve repented of their dreadful sin, and 
put their trust in God, and lived and died in His 
fear and faith, it could only have been by the power 
of the Holy Ghost. We are told that "Enoch did 
walk with God, and was not, because God took him," 
and his holy life was the blessed fruit of the Spirit's 
gracious influences. Indeed, all the real heart re- 
ligion there was in this wicked world, before the 
flood, was due to the office and work of God the 
Holy Ghost. We speak of heart religion, not as 
though that were something different from the relig- 
ion of outward dutifulness in word and deed toward 
God; — for Xoah was showing his heart religion just 
as truly when, in obedience to God's commands, he 
was building the ark, as when, by himself, he was 
praying to God; — but we speak of heart religion 
because the heart is where the work begins; and it 
is as unwise, as unscriptural, as unreasonable to 
talk about heart religion as constituting the whole 
thing, as it would be to talk about the root of the 
tree as constituting the whole tree. Says St. Paul, 
in his Epistle to the Romans, speaking of both the 
inward and the outward part of religion: "With 
the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and 
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." 
And the good Spirit of God it was who kept alive, 
in Noah's heart, faith in God, and love toward God, 
and hope in God's sure promises; and which nerved 
his arm for the external work of felling and dressing 
the trees of the forest, and building them up into 



THE SPIRIT'S STRIFE WITH MAN. 



49 



the ark of his salvation. That good Spirit, enjoyed 
by fallen, sinful men and women, — by Adam and 
Eve and all descended from them, — even till the 
flood blotted out all but eight of the whole human 
race, — that good Spirit was the gift of the Father, 
through the Son. For Christ's sake, who, in due 
time, would die for the ungodly, that Spirit strove 
with fallen and degenerating man. 

The flood is supposed to have occurred about 
1656 years after man's creation, when the earth had 
been inhabited for a period about 200 years shorter 
than that which has elapsed since the birth of 
Christ. Things had been growing worse. The 
inherited corruption of nature had been manifest- 
ing its awful virulence, in wickedness more and more 
extended and more ancl more defiant. He who had 
introduced this foreign element into humanity; who 
had made those sinners and sinful, whom God had 
created in righteousness and true holiness; he 
watched over his evil work with a sleepless vigi- 
lance, and tried his secret, imperceptible agency 
upon generation after generation, and upon every 
individual of each. He made heart irreligion, life 
irreligion — expressing itself in wicked words and 
sinful actions; in contempt- for, and neglect of, even 
all the forms and ceremonies of the worship and 
service of God. Satan indeed knows that he may 
often succeed in keeping men sinners, even while 
they do attend to the forms and ceremonies of reli- 
gion; but he feels altogether more sure of success, 
and on a grander scale, if men and women can be 
brought to undervalue, to despise, and to neglect 

5* 



50 



SERMONS. 



those forms and ceremonies. He knows that the man 
who, every Lord's day, goes to church may not, at 
last, go to heaven. But he also knows that the man 
who seldom or never goes to church, will he far 
more likely to go to hell. And so, in the days that 
were before the flood, he effected a general neglect 
and contempt of the services and ceremonies of re- 
ligion. "While there were those designated as "the 
sons of God," some of whom believed and feared 
and loved their Creator, and showed they did so by 
building their altars, and laying the wood in order, 
and slaying and offering their sacrifices; like Abel, 
for example, who, it is said, "brought of the first- 
lings of his flock and of the fat thereof:" there were 
others who did not so much as keep up even the 
outward form of worshipping God ; thoroughly irre- 
ligious men, who had no altars ; and whose irreligion 
was proclaimed by the fact that they had none: as 
Cain, who was reproved by the Lord on this very 
account. 

It was hardly possible that, under the growing 
and deepening wickedness of those days, the sons of 
God should go unscathed. They did not; and the 
first verse of the sixth chapter shows us the insidious 
temptation by which many of them made it hard for 
themselves to serve God, or rendered it too proba- 
ble they would be altogether drawn away from do- 
ing so: "And it came to pass, when men began to 
multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters 
were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the 
daughters of men that they were fair; and they 
took them wives of all which they chose." They 



THE SPIRIT'S STRIFE WITH MAN. 



51 



married into irreligious families; not only into 
those which were not of the same faith with them- 
selves, but into those of no faith at all. The whole 
human race, at that early day, seems to have been 
parted into the two grand and only denominations — 
the worshippers of the one living and true God, and 
the neglecters of His worship and service. The 
traditions of sixteen hundred years, which by rea- 
son of the long lives of men in those days, two or 
three persons could have handed down from Adam 
to Noah; and the fewness of the facts and doctrines 
of religion left no room for differences of opinion as 
to what God had taught as His truth, and how He 
was to be worshipped and served. It was only the 
question of belief or unbelief, obedience or disobe- 
dience; and the settlement of that question by indi- 
viduals, ranged them at once either on the side of 
God, or against Him. The sons of God ventured 
the dangerous, too often fatal, experiment of alli- 
ances with those who were against God; and they 
soon had reason to ask: "How can two walk to- 
gether except they be agreed?" They soon found 
that such alliances must make them less religious, 
or draw them altogether from the service of God. 
And the practical effect, upon families, of this state 
of things ; the mother an utterly irreligious woman ; 
the father a backslider, a mere formal servant of 
God — or an earnest one, daily thwarted and hindered 
in serving God himself, and trying to bring up his 
sons and daughters religiously; the practical effect, 
upon families, of this state of things was disastrous in 
the extreme. " The daughters of men that were fair," 



52 



SERMONS. 



— but hateful to God because of their unconverted 
hearts, and worldly and sinful lives, — made only 
such wives and mothers as would endanger the 
eternal interests of all connected with them. 

It is in immediate connection with the account of 
these sinful marriages that the text occurs, as 
though that prevailing and growing wickedness — 
with which God had resolved to bear but a little 
while longer — was largely owing to them. "And 
the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with 
man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be 
an hundred and twenty years." Such was the 
divine determination. There were men and women 
alive, when that determination was announced, who 
would live to see the day when the Spirit of God 
would leave them to themselves; who would go on 
disregarding the instructions and warnings of God's 
ministers, the prophets; doing despite to the Spirit 
of grace whispering in their hearts, " Sinner, come;" 
and would finally be abandoned to incurable hard- 
ness of heart and contempt of God's word and com- 
mandment. It would be an hundred and twenty 
years first, before the striving of the Spirit would 
cease; at least it would be so long before the flood 
would come and take away, just as it might find 
them, the multitudes who had been so long and 
fruitlessly urged to turn unto God. There might be 
some, perhaps, who, long before the one hundred 
and twenty years should have expired, would be 
given over to a reprobate mind. The reason God 
assigns why His Spirit should not always strive with 
man is: "For that he also is flesh;'" that is, he has 



THE SPIRIT'S STRIFE WITH MAN. 



53 



become a mere carnal and sensual being— one who 
looks at, and cares for, only the things which are 
seen and temporal. He had already sunk very low, 
and was constantly sinking lower and lower; and 
after he should reach a certain depth, the Spirit, 
who had all the while, as it were, had his hand 
upon and been trying to raise him, and would have 
succeeded, but for his wilful and obstinate resist- 
ance, would let go of him ; and then he would sink, 
and be lost irrecoverablv. ISTo doubt there were 
scoffers, and infidels, and practical Atheists who had 
shown themselves so wicked, had so long and wil- 
fully grieved the Holy Spirit, had sunk so low, 
years before the flood came, that the Spirit let go of 
them, gave them up, abandoned them to the devices 
of their own sinful hearts; and when the one hun- 
dred and twenty years had expired, He altogether, 
it may be, suspended His gracious influences, and 
concentrated them upon the eight persons within 
the ark : from whom the human race was to take a 
fresh start, and enter upon that day of probation, 
which will end only when the predicted flood of fire 
shall encircle our w T orld and wrap it in the funeral- 
flames of the final conflagration. 

"We all have to do with this same unchanging 
Being, whose dispensations toward the antediluvians 
He has caused to be written in the Holy Scriptures 
for our learning: and there are two points, in 
the solemn statement of the text, which it is im- 
measurably important should be carefully consid- 
ered. The first of those two points — and it is di- 
rectly stated — is: "My Spirit shall not always strive 



54 



SERMONS. 



with man." Now, this seems very clearly to mean 
that individuals are not to expect that the Spirit of 
God will never withdraw His influences from them? 
but in every case will strive on, and try to save 
them, till they draw their last breath. There is, in- 
deed, a sense in which God's Spirit will always 
strive with man. He is in the world, and is to re- 
main here till the end of time: and all along He 
will be endeavoring to convince the world of sin, of 
righteousness, and of judgment. It may be that 
within an hour of the sounding of the last trump, 
the Holy Spirit will be striving with many sinful 
hearts and giving them their last call. But the 
Spirit will not always strive with each individual— 
up to the very last moment of his life. The very 
exhortation, " Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God," 
necessarily carries with it the idea of the possibility 
of His being grieved; yea, so grieved as to leave the 
sinner to himself: as, in the language of Scripture, 
"to give him over to a reprobate mind." You re- 
member how David prayed, "Cast me not away 
from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit 
from me;" and we are to remember that repent- 
ance, faith, obedience, salvation, are simply impossi- 
ble without the grace of the Holy Spirit. A man 
can as soon see without eyes and without light, as 
come to Jesus and make his way to heaven without 
the Spirit. It is death to the soul to be abandoned 
by the Spirit. 

When that calamity occurs, — whether it occur as 
the impenitent sinner is drawing his last breath, or 
years before his death, — it seals his doom. He is 



THE SPIEIT'S STRIFE TVTTH MAN. 



55 



lost from that moment forever. !Now, it may not 
be possible to tell, in every ease, perhaps not in any 
case, just when that dreadful occurrence has actually 
taken place. We know, indeed, Saul said, "The 
Lord is departed from me;" and the history of his 
latter end seems to furnish proof that he was not 
mistaken. But, doubtless, it has very often hap- 
pened that persons who supposed the Spirit had 
ceased to strive with them, were in error. Indeed, 
their very distress and anxiety about the matter; 
their alarm for their safety; their deep sorrow for 
their sins, supposed by them to be no longer pardon- 
able; their agonizing wish it were possible Jesus 
would pity and save them, — all this showed very 
plainly that they had misjudged their own case. All 
these signs of life, that only the Spirit of God 
awakens, proved incontestably that He had not 
given them over into spiritual and eternal death. 
Only it ought to be a sufficient warning to us that 
such a calamity is possible, that Almighty God him- 
self has said to me, to each one of you, "My Spirit 
shall not always strive with man!" That ought to 
make us afraid to grieve and resist Him; to neglect 
what we know to be our 'duty; to go against our 
consciences; to hold out against the call of the 
Spirit, whispering in the heart of every sinner who 
has not yet made his peace with God, through Jesus, 
"Sinner, come: behold, I stand at the door and 
knock." This, then, is the first point in the text 
which I would have you seriously think about; not 
only now, but after you shall have gone to your 
respective homes : " My Spirit shall not always strive 
with man." 



56 



SERMONS. 



What determines the question, how long, in any 
particular instance, the Spirit will strive? Undoubt- 
edly the true answer to this question is, the will of 
God. His- sovereign will will decide, in the case of 
each one of you who has still to repent; to believe 
in, and obey Jesus; His sovereign will will decide 
whether the Spirit shall strive on till you die, or give 
you up, if you resist Him, some time before. But 
let us remember that a sovereign will is not the 
same thiug as an arbitrary will. God does just what 
He pleases, but He always pleases just to do what 
is right. He is an infinitely wise Being ; and, there- 
fore, must always have good and sufficient reasons 
for what He does. He is no respecter of persons; 
He is just; He is impartial; He is full of tender 
compassion and mercy. If we could know and ap- 
preciate, in every instance, His reasons for what He 
does, we should in every instance say, "That is 
right: 'just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of 
Saints.'" It is probable we shall know, in the 
world to come, why God fixed upon one hundred 
and twenty years as the period through which the 
Spirit should strive, and His patience and forbear- 
ance be exercised toward' the sinful men and women 
of that day. If we should, undoubtedly we shall dis- 
cover that, all things being considered, one hundred 
and twenty years was just the right space; that one 
hundred years would have been too short, one hun- 
dred and fifty too long; that the Spirit ceased to 
strive, in each case, at precisely the right time; the 
time best for God, yea, and even best for the sinner 
himself. 



THE SPIRIT'S STRIFE WITH MAN. 57 

Now, does God, in the text, give us any clue to 
the consideration by which He would determine, in 
the individual's case, when the Spirit should cease 
to strive? It would seem that He does, for He says, 
"My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for 
that he also is flesh." It would appear that some- 
thing in the sinner himself, something in his own 
state of heart and life, settled the question, how 
long the Spirit should strive. He would strive until 
the wilful, and resisting, and rebellious sinner 
should make it plain that the time for His ceasing 
to strive had come. The same truth, exactly, seems 
to be taught in our Lord's parable of the tig-tree: 
"Let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, 
and dung it: and if it bear fruit, well: and if not, 
then after that thou shaft cut it down." The fig- 
tree itself was to decide the question of its own fate. 
The sinner may indeed say, "The Spirit could 
convert me, if he chose." But could not the fig- 
tree have said, "The Lord of the vineyard can 
make me fruitful, if he pleases?" And would that 
have saved it, if at the end of the year it had been 
found an unfruitful fig-tree still? E"o! It had ad- 
vantages which ought to have made it fruitful: a 
good soil, careful and sufficient culture, a forbear- 
ing owner who came, year after year, seeking fruit 
on that fig-tree and finding none. There must have 
been in the organization of that tree a capacity for 
being fruitful; it was not, under the circumstances, 
an impossible thing that it should have borne fruit. 
The cutting down, at last, was to be a sign of dis- 
satisfaction and displeasure: and there would have 

6 



58 



SERMONS. 



been no room for either, had the tree been always 
and absolutely incapable of fruitful ness. It would 
be contradictory to the very design with which our 
Lord spake the parable, to suppose that He thought 
the sinner, represented by the barren fig-tree, could 
justly say, "I cannot help it. It is not my fault." 
Ah ! when the Spirit ceases to strive with any sinner, 
that is just the reason he does so — it is "the sinner's 
own fault." He has put an end to that gracious 
work which might have saved his soul from death. 
He has so long refused to be led by the Spirit, to 
follow the dictates of an awakened and enlightened 
conscience, that he has brought on the time when 
it is not proper or best, either as regards God or 
himself, that the Spirit should any more strive with 
him. The years have gone by, which the all-wise 
God assigned as the proper duration of his day of 
grace. *And all that is left to the Lord, who loved 
and would have saved him, is to repeat His touch- 
ing lament over Jerusalem: "Oh that thou hadst 
known, even thou, at least, in this thy day, the 
things which belong unto thy peace; but now they 
are hid from thine eyes." 

You perceive, then, that the dread responsibility 
of deciding when the Spirit shall cease to strive with 
you, rests with yourself. And these are the two 
points I entreat you to think about, after you have 
gone to your home: First, "God's Spirit will not 
always strive with man;" and second, "You must 
decide when he shall cease to strive with you:' His 
striving and your resisting, you know, are going on 
all the while that the ordinary course of daily affairs 



THE SPIRIT'S STRIFE WITH MAN. 



59 



is going on. You come to church; you hear ser- 
mons; your minister asks you to come to Jesus; 
you hear and read your Bibles; things happen which 
make you think and feel about death, judgment, and 
eternity; thoughts and emotions come into your 
own minds and hearts ; you see and hear of others 
becoming Christians; of wide-spread and serious in- 
terest and anxiety about the soul and salvation ; and 
sometimes you say to yourself, even speak out the 
words, "I should like to be a Christian; I wish I 
were; I would my peace were made with God, and 
I had the comfort of the hope that, if I should die, 
Jesus would be with me and receive my soul at 
last." The good Spirit of God is trying to bring 
you to your Saviour. Has he not, at times, even 
almost persuaded you to become a Christian? And 
then week-day cares and duties, and trials and 
temptations crowd around, and time goes by, — 
weeks and months and years, — still the Holy Spirit 
of God has not been yielded to ; still you seem as 
far as ever from the point of deciding to give your 
heart to Jesus, and to enter upon the course of a 
grateful, Christian life. 

Oh ! how much like those days before the flood, as 
the Saviour depicts them, are these days of your life 
which are passing now. "They were eating and 
drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, until 
the day that ISToah entered into the ark, and knew 
not until the flood came and took them all away." 
The ordinary course of affairs went on, till the very 
last; and then came the judgment, for which, though 
so long striven with by the Spirit, they were totally 



60 



SERMONS. 



unprepared. Shall it be so with you? Are you not 
running the risk of such a result? You may die to- 
night, and then the Spirit, who is striving with you 
now by my words, just as He strove with the ante- 
diluvians by Noah's, will strive with you no more 
forever; — or you may have a long while to live, and 
•being the more indisposed to come to and own 
Jesus, the longer you delay, may cause the Spirit to 
leave you to yourself, to live and die unconverted 
and unpardoned. Oh, carry away with you these 
two solemn thoughts, "God's Spirit will not always 
strive with man," and "I must decide, am deciding, 
when He shall cease to strive;" that they may de- 
termine you to seek the Lord while He may be 
found, to believe in the Lord Jesus, that you may 
find mercy and grace to help. Carry away with you 
these two solemn thoughts, and may God cause 
them to sink deep into your hearts. 



SERMON in. 

THE REAL WANTS OF THE SOUL. 

And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for 
many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. — St. Luke, 
xii. 19. 

Our blessed Lord represents a rich man as thus 
speaking to himself. His ground had brought forth 
plentifully. He had more than he knew what to do 
with. God, who "causeth His sun to shine upon the 
evil and upon the good, and sendeth rain upon the 
just and upon the unjust," had opened the windows 
of heaven, and poured out upon this man a blessing 
that there was not room enough to receive it. "And 
he thought within himself, Vfhat shall I do, because 
I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And 
he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, 
and build greater; and there will I bestow all my 
fruits and my goods. And I will say unto my soul, 
Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; 
take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." He had 
no other thought, but to hoard up for his own self- 
ish purposes ; to spend whatever Almighty God had 
given him upon himself. It seems not to have come 
into his mind that there could be any other legiti- 
mate use of what he had. Self-gratification, to the 
utmost practicable extent, was the law of his sinful 

6* (61) 



62 



SERMONS. 



and useless life. To feed himself, and clothe him- 
self, and amuse himself, and make his days pass as 
pleasantly as possible; this was the measure of his 
unworthy ambition. 

His was a spirit that has not died out. It is as 
rife now as it was then. And there is not a little 
reason to apprehend that even those who profess 
and call themselves Christians participate in that 
spirit; that many who would sit in judgment on this 
man and condemn him, are yet far from being 
wholly unlike him. It is not necessary that, like 
him, you should have abounding wealth, in order to 
think and feel and act as he did. Your earnings 
may be small, and yet afford the opportunity of 
showing that, like the rich man, you are actuated 
only or chiefly by a selfish or a self-indulgent spirit. 
You may not have to say, "What shall I do, for I 
have not room where to bestow my goods?" and 
yet may say of all that you have, "It shall be spent 
upon myself." It may no more come into your 
heart to set apart a portion of what God enables 
you in some way to earn, to pious and charitable 
purposes, than it came into the rich man's heart. 
So long as there is anything you can buy for 
yourself, which, though not absolutely necessary, 
not absolutely indispensable, will yet contribute to 
purposes of comfort, of pride, of ostentation; you 
may be as ready to concentrate your means upon 
yourself, and as little think of self-denial as the rich 
man did. You may be clothed in garments, part of 
the cost of which might easily and with great pro- 
priety have been saved for the destitute and the suffer- 



THE REAL WANTS OF THE SOUL. 



63 



ing. You may be adorned with ornaments, and eat 
and drink, at the fearful expense of having nothing 
to give to him that needeth. "While never wholly 
at a loss to get what you wish for yourself, you may 
be poor always, when the church of God and the 
claims of the gospel of Christ, of the poor, the sor- 
rowing, the suffering appeal to you. The year's ex- 
penditure, in which you individually are interested, 
may present a mournful contrast in comparison 
with the year's expenditure in which the cause of 
God and of distressed humanity is concerned. 

My brethren, if there is one of you who can say 
before God, I have done what I could; if there is 
one of you who knows in his own conscience that 
he has desired and endeavored to be a faithful stew- 
ard of the means, greater or less, God has entrusted 
to him, — let not the words that have been spoken be 
a burden to Mm. Such an one has not failed to con- 
sider his Master's solemn words, "If any man will 
come after Me, let him den}^ himself, and take up 
his cross, and follow Me" Such an one has not 
been insensible to the force of the inspired precept, 
"Let him labor, working with his hands, the thing 
which is good, that he may have to give to him that 
needeth," — not that, forgetful of all others, he may 
have enough to spend upon himself, — but " that he 
may have to give to him that needeth." 

I have no fear, however, that in these days of lux- 
ury and self-indulgence and free expenditure of 
time and money upon Christians' selves, that such 
words as have been spoken will be found every- 
where and altogether inapplicable. I believe that 



64 



SERMONS. 



the spirit of the world has gained a lodgment 
among those who name the name of Christ to a 
fearful extent: that there are Christian people, 
young and old, with whom the idea of self-denial ; 
of curtailing their personal expenses, that they may 
have to give to religious and charitable purposes, — 
is an idea rarely acted upon, instead of being as it 
should be, the habit of their lives. Disciples of a 
Master, who pleased not himself; who, though He 
was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we 
through His poverty might be rich: whose whole 
life was a life of incessant and wondrous sacrifices 
and self-denial! Disciples of such a Master! do 
yet lead lives, the aim of which is rather to gratify 
themselves, than to deny themselves for the sake of 
others; to be clothed in fine array, even though it 
may deny them the privilege of clothing with the 
warm garment, in the winter's piercing cold, the 
shivering children of poverty and want. They 
come to regard as the province of ministers and 
ministers' families, and the higher and better sort 
of Christians, the duty of spending as little upon 
themselves as possible, that they may have the more 
for those that need. 

But there is one law for us all: a true Christian 
spirit; "ready to give and glad to distribute; laying 
up for itself a good foundation against the time to 
come, that it may attain eternal life;" such a spirit, 
whatever the extent of its means, can no more be 
content with doing everything for itself, and little 
or nothing for others, than a mother, in a time of 
scarcity, would be content to make a full meal in 



THE REAL WANTS OF THE SOUL. 65 

the presence of her starving child. "Where there 
is a will, there is a way." "When the love of Christ 
does indeed constrain the heart, it will be a rare 
case, in which a Christian will feel absolutely unable 
to do anything but for himself and his; in a world 
so full as ours is, of ignorance and sin and suffer- 
ing; and where so many channels are open, in 
which the streams or rivulets of our charity may 
flow, to the glory of God's great name, and the 
comfort and benefit and salvation of fellow-beings, 
for whom Christ — both God and man — "did shed 
out of His most precious side both water and 
blood." 

"As we have opportunity;" and the ingenuity of 
Christian love will make both opportunity and the 
means of improving it; "as we have, therefore, 
opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially 
unto those that are of the household of faith." 
You have the ministrations of the gospel to sustain 
among yourselves, and for your own sakes: you 
have to aid in the extension of those ministrations 
to the more destitute parts of our own great coun- 
try, and to those sorrowful, darkened lands over 
which heathen ignorance and superstition broods: 
at our own doors, and away to the very ends of the 
earth, are claims upon Christian charity which each 
one of us Christians is bound before God to assist 
in meeting; and which we cannot possibly meet 
unless we deny ourselves. And the less we have, 
the more impossible is it we should dispense with 
self-denial; claims which we cannot possibly meet, 
if all our interest and all our attention is concen- 



66 



SERMONS. 



trated upon the questions, " What shall i eat ? What 
shall I drink ? Wherewithal shall I be clothed ? 

Have you ever altogether denied yourself an arti- 
cle of dress, or been content with a less expensive 
one? Have you ever altogether forborne the pur- 
chase of some article of convenience and luxury 
which, though you perhaps strongly desired, you 
felt you could do without, because you wished to be 
prepared for the many opportunities of giving, which 
God's providence is continually affording and testing 
His people by? Is this, or anything like it, the 
habit of your life? Oh ! what might not Christians 
do, if they were as anxious to save money for the 
purposes of God and His church and His poor, as 
often they are to get it to spend upon themselves ! 
What might not Christians do, if by God's grace 
they cultivated in their hearts the spirit of that poor 
woman who cast her mite, even all the living that 
she had, into the Lord's treasury ! Of whom Jesus, 
beholding her act, and calling the attention of the 
disciples to it, said, "Verily, I. say unto you, that 
this poor widow hath cast more in than all they 
which cast into the treasury ; for all they did cast in 
of their abundance ; but she of her want did cast in 
all that she had, even all her living." 

Consider then, my dear brethren, that the address 
of the rich man to his soul has a solemn lesson of 
instruction for you; whatever your circumstances in 
life may be — whatever the extent of the means of 
which God has made you the steward : " Soul, thou 
hast much good laid up for many years; take thine 
ease; eat, drink and be merry." It is possible that 



THE EEAL WANTS OF THE SOUL. 67 

you too may cherish just such a spirit of selfishness 
and self-indulgence. You may care inordinately for 
your own ease ; your own gratification ; and are will- 
ing to pursue these ends, to a degree that leaves you 
nothing with which to meet the claims of God upon 
you, in behalf of others. You may be, though bear- 
ing His name, as unlike your Saviour as the rich 
man was. 

Oh how little did our Divine Lord think of or care 
for himself ! How devoted was he to the welfare 
and happiness of others ! It was no cheap pity, no 
inexpensive sympathy He bestowed on us. It cost 
more to redeem our souls ! more than the money we 
may make one mode of expressing our thankfulness 
to Him. "For ye were not redeemed with corrupt- 
ible things, as silver and gold; but with the precious 
blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and 
without spot." In Christians, therefore, the trace of 
such a spirit as the rich man manifested, must be 
inexpressibly offensive to their Master and only Sa- 
viour. His Holy Spirit it was who dictated the 
words : " Look not every man on his own things, 
but every man also on the things of others ; let this 
mind be in you; which was also in Christ Jesus; 
who, being in the form of God, thought it not rob- 
bery to be equal with God ; but made Himself of 
no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a 
servant; and was made in the likeness of men: and 
being formed in fashion as a man, He humbled Him- 
self and became obedient unto death, even the death 
of the Cross." 

And this self-sacrificing, self-denying Master-— oh ! 



68 



SERMONS. 



let us pray God we may have grace to remember it, 
and act as if we did remember it — this self-sacri- 
ficing, self-denying Master, has left us an example 
that we should follow His steps. We, each one of us 
Christians; each minister; each private Christian; 
the youngest of us, and the oldest of us; the richest 
of us, and the poorest of us ; not one is, or can pos- 
sibly be exempt from the obligation of denying him- 
self and taking up his cross and following Christ. 
There is one law of life, and only one for us all ; 
and in the particular of Christian obligation which 
the case of the rich man suggests; that law is: "If 
thou hast much, give plenteously ; if thou hast lit- 
tle, do thy diligence gladly to give of that little. Let 
every man do as he is disposed in his heart; not 
grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful 
giver." 

"And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much 
goods laid up for many years; take thine ease; eat, 
drink and be merry." What a lie! what a gross 
deceit did that man put upon his soul! Probably 
he seldom thought or spoke of his soul. But this 
time he did, though only to deceive it to its ruin. 
"Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many 
years." Was it true ? What does the soul need? 
What the ground of that rich man brought forth so 
plentifully and he proposed to stow away in his new- 
built and enlarged barns ? Was that what his soul 
needed ? Could his soul eat ? Could his soul drink ? 
Could his soul, just ready to drop into hell, be merry? 
Had it any right or reason to be so ? If a minister 
of God had gone to that man that day, rolling in 



THE REAL WANTS OF THE SOUL. 69 

wealth as lie was, that minister would have spoken 
only the truth if he had said unto him, " Thou say- 
est I am rich and increased with goods and have 
need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art 
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and 
naked." And the man himself found out it was 
really so that very night. God put him in a state in 
which he could be truly sensible what the condition 
of his soul was ; what it had, what it wanted. " Thou 
fool! this night thy soul shall be required of thee." 
It was required that very night, and he found his 
soul had been poor; and must be eternally poor; 
and would have been, even if he could have taken 
into eternity " the much goods laid up for many 
years." Sound is not for the eye; light is not for 
the ear. Things must have what they were made 
for; what is adapted to them. The immortal soul 
was not made for things seen and temporal; and 
things seen and temporal are not adapted to it. That 
rich man, amidst all his wealth, an impenitent and 
unpardoned sinner; with no hold upon God's mercy; 
no fitness for God's presence; no preparation for the 
hour of death, or for the day of judgment; certain, 
if he should die as he was, to be cast into outer 
darkness, where shall be weeping and wailing and 
gnashing of teeth, was in a state of awful spiritual 
destitution and peril. His soul had nothing, and 
wanted everything: pardon — grace — God's favor — 
everlasting life; all the while he was telling it how 
much it had. The only difference between its con- 
dition at mid-day and at midnight, was that, at the 
latter time, death had set the seal on that condition, 

1i 



70 



SERMONS. 



and rendered it forever unchangeable. He saw that 
night how wretched and destitute his soul all along 
had been, though he had not known it. How he 
had been suffering the worst kind of poverty with- 
out being sensible of it, all through his mortal life, 
and was now reaping the fruit of the neglected warn- 
ing. " For what shall it profit a man, if he shall 
gain the whole world and lose his own soul ?" 

It was not the uncertainty of life, or the sudden- 
ness of his death, that made that man a self-deceiver 
when he said to his soul, " Thou hast much goods 
laid up for many years." It was because, while he 
had all he needed for the body, he had taken no 
thought for the soul; no care that its sins should be 
done away by God's mercy, and its pardon sealed in 
heaven, before he should go hence and be no more 
seen. It was because that while his affections were 
set on the things of the earth, he had suffered the 
things which belonged to his everlasting. peace to be 
hid from his eyes. It was because that he was no 
way fitted for the awful change which came upon 
him with such astonishing suddenness, and snatched 
him away from life before he had so much as begun 
to think seriously of preparing to meet his God. 
And while, literally, his soul had nothing, and 
wanted everything, it was not true in any sense, or 
for any purpose that he " had much goods laid up 
for many years." He was quite sure it was so. But 
he left out of the account one element of chief im- 
portance : the fearful uncertainty of human life. He 
was face to face with death at the same time, nay 
at the very moment, when he was talking about " much 



THE REAL WANTS OF THE SOUL. 



Tl 



goods laid up for many years." That night, a sum- 
mons from his neglected God would dissipate all his 
dreams of the future and awake him to the dread- 
ful consciousness, "the harvest is past; the summer 
is ended; and I am not saved." Oh ! had he truly 
repented him of his sin; had he turned to God his 
Saviour with his whole heart ; had he used this world 
as not abusing it ; had he acted like a man who felt 
it was of infinitely greater moment to be prepared 
for the world to come; he might have said to his 
soul, " Thou hast much goods laid up for many 
years." His sudden death would only have put him 
in eternal possession of treasures in heaven, where 
moth and rust do not corrupt, and where thieves do 
not break through nor steal. As it was, sudden 
death stripped him of all he had; of all he hoped 
for; and sent him into eternity an unprepared and 
ruined sinner. 

"What would sudden death do for you? Are you 
any better prepared for it than he was? Have you 
taken any more thought as to the pardon of your 
sins and the salvation of your souls than he did ? 
Are you not looking forward to the future and prom- 
ising yourself "many years" as he was? Would 
you not have lived as much to no purpose as he had 
if God should say to you, "This night thy soul shall 
be required of thee?" You have never truly re- 
pented of your sins past; but there is no forgiveness 
without repentance. You have never believed in 
the Lord Jesus Christ as God your only and all-suf- 
ficient Saviour; but there is none other name given 
under heaven whereby we may be saved. You have 



72 



SERMONS. 



never confessed Him before men; but He has made 
it conditional upon your doing so — His confessing 
you before His Father and the holy angels in the 
day of judgment. Not ready to meet God, and yet 
liable at any moment to be summoned into His pres- 
ence, with the only alternatives of life eternal or 
everlasting punishment before you; and yet liable 
at any moment to forfeit the one unspeakable bless- 
ing; to incur the other inexpressible woe! Oh! 
heed the Lord's warning for every one of you — 
" Seek ye the Lord while He may be found; call ye 
upon Him while He is near;" lest that day overtake 
you, unawares, which came to the rich man's soul 
while it was yet "all unprepared to meet Him." 



SERMON IV. 



THE DANGER OF DELAY. 

And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, which 
was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith 
in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance and 
judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for 
this time ; when I have a convenient season I will call for thee. — 
Acts, xxiv. 24, 25. 

When a man sends for a minister of Christ ; espe- 
cially when such a man as Felix does so ; it is enough 
to awaken the hope that he means to care for his 
soul; that he has some thoughts of attending to the 
things which "belong to his everlasting peace. Fe- 
lix was not a sick and dying man ; almost the only 
sort of persons now who think of sending for a min- 
ister of Christ. He was, as far as appears, in full 
health; surrounded by all the pomp and circum- 
stance of wealth and political distinction. It was a 
good sign, taken by itself, that he should have 
thought of sending for Paul to hear him concerning 
the faith of Christ. Paul was then in custody, on 
some false and malicious charges his countrymen had 
made against him. For, from the moment it was 
known he had become a Christian, the Jews pursued 
him with a spirit of unrelenting hostility. That 
Felix should have sent for him, and have given him 
ample opportunity to say what, as a minister of 

7* (73) 



74 



SERMONS, 



Christ, lie felt called to say, seemed to argue that 
Felix was open to conviction, and perhaps disposed 
to consider seriously what the apostle might lay be- 
fore him. 

And he did not listen alone to Paul's preaching. 
His wife, Drusilla, which, was a Jewess, was with 
him. Did it indicate a desire on his part that she 
might become a Christian? In so far as he may be 
considered as encouraging her to hear the preaching 
of the Gospel, and as affording her the opportunity 
of doing so, his example is eminently worthy of at- 
tention and of imitation. There are many cases in 
which it depends entirely upon the husband, whether 
the feet of the wife shall ever cross the threshold of 
God's house; whether she shall ever, or often, or 
seldom, have the opportunity of hearing words 
whereby she may be saved. And in every case the 
willingness of the husband to attend church himself, 
and to encourage the disposition to do so in the wife 
where it exists; and to awaken it where it does not; 
in any case the willingness of the husband to do 
this, will exercise a powerful influence. Let but 
the wife perceive on the part of the husband a dis- 
position to consecrate the Lord's day to the purposes 
for which God has set it apart ; to go to the house 
of God on that day as regularly and punctually as 
to the place of business on other days ; and rarely 
will the case occur in which she will not be glad for 
his sake and for her own. He will not be inclined 
to go more frequently than she will be to accom- 
pany him. It will not be at her lips that the pro- 
posal made by his, will ever meet with discourage- 



THE DANGER OF DELAY. 



75 



merit: "Come and let us go unto the house of the 
Lord." Doubtless, on many other occasions, Felix 
had encouraged and persuaded Drusilla to go where 
it was not for her soul's health to go; and to hear 
what would make her, not the more, but the less 
mindful of God and her own soul. He was a gay, 
worldly, self-indulgent man — a loyer of pleasure 
more than a loyer of God. Then, as noio, there were 
associations and amusements, which, if not destruct- 
ive of good morals, as some of them were, were al- 
together incompatible with the state of heart everyone 
would seek to cherish who desired to serve God and 
save his own soul. In truth, Felix and Drusilla were 
both unrighteous before God. He was a bad man, 
and she was a bad woman. And though his send- 
ing for Paul, and having her with him, when he 
heard that preacher of the truth, looked well on the 
face of it; yet there is but too much ground for 
supposing that it could have been no sincere concern 
for either his own soul or hers that led him to do so. 

But however it was, Paul appeared before him, 
and reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judg- 
ment to come; each of which subjects touched Fe- 
lix to the quick. He was an unjust and oppressive 
Governor; guilty of subjecting the people commit- 
ted to his care to insufferable exactions. To reason 
of righteousness before such a man ; to lay before 
him the obligations and the penalty of that Divine 
law of which his whole course of life was one con- 
tinued violation ; to speak before him of temper- 
ance, of continence, of moral purity, when she who 
sat by his side, though she bore the sacred name 



76 



SERMONS. 



of wife, was not entitled to it; to point his thoughts 
to that dread tribunal, where great, as well as small, 
shall receive according to that they have done; this 
was indeed to unsettle the foundation of his peace. 

The worse a man becomes, indeed, the less power 
do such thoughts have to disturb and alarm him. 
The longer he lives a life of great wickedness, the 
longer he goes on in a course which, even though it 
be not what the world would call a very wicked 
course, yet does violence to his own convictions of 
duty; the more will he be removed from the reach 
of those truths which it is of unspeakable import- 
ance every accountable being should believe, and 
by which he should be influenced. But the terrors 
of the Almighty may sometimes take hold upon even 
very bad men. The light of God's truth may some- 
times be so flashed into their minds as to show them 
to themselves; and the sinner against God, who, in 
even a slight measure, comes to see himself as God 
sees him, cannot, for the time, at least, be wholly at 
rest. He may afterwards and very soon get the bet- 
ter of his thoughts and fears. They may quickly 
pass away, with all the better purposes they seemed 
about to engender. Indeed, the person may even 
be surprised at himself, when his ordinary tone of 
feeling has returned, that he should have thought 
so seriously, or been so much disturbed. But at the 
time, and for a time, God's truth may make an im- 
pression; it may sound its alarm in the heart of the 
individual who is walking in the broad road which 
leadeth to destruction, and command his attention 
to its appeal: " Prepare to meet thy God." 



THE DANGER OF DELAY. 



77 



Such seems to have been the case with Felix, 
when he sent for Paul and heard him concerning 
the faith in Christ ; " and as he reasoned of right- 
eousness, temperance and judgment to come, Felix 
trembled." Yes, with Drusilla at his side, and in 
public, the Governor trembled. He saw enough of 
the real state of his case, enough of his guilt, enough 
of his danger, enough of the necessity which existed 
for his repentance and amendment, to fill him with, 
at least, a momentary alarm. Yes, and so deep an 
alarm that he could not altogether control himself; 
he could not altogether conceal the inward disturb- 
ance which Paul's plain and faithful words had oc- 
casioned. Whether his own guilty conscience made 
the application of what Paul said; or whether the 
Apostle put his reasonings in such a form, that Felix 
found it impossible to escape their point; it would 
seem as though he felt called upon to make some 
reply: " and he answered, Go thy way for this time ; 
when I have a convenient season I will call for thee." 

How different was the course of the heathen Jailer 
from this course of the heathen Governor. He too 
came trembling, and fell down before Paul, this 
same Paul, and Silas, and said: "Sirs, what must I 
do to be saved?" Felix had even ampler cause to 
ask that same question. He was in the most immi- 
nent danger of being lost. The elements of ever- 
lasting misery were already in him; in the character 
he had formed, and the frightful liabilities he had 
incurred. And he had caught a glimpse of his case 
as it really was, and this glimpse startled him. Like 
the vessel dashing forwards, directly towards the 



78 



SERMONS. 



frightful reef; and seeing, for a moment, the ap- 
palling danger through a sudden opening in the 
driving mist, this sinner against God and his own 
soul, hastening to make utter shipwreck of his ever- 
lasting interests, had beheld, for an instant, as apos- 
tolic words swept aside the dark curtain of ordinary 
indifference and insensibility, the tremendous peril 
to which he was exposed. 

He trembled at the sight. But, alas! it did not 
call for the importunate question, " What must I do 
to be saved?" It did not send him in anxious 
supplication to that Jesus whom Paul preached; 
preached as the only hope of lost and dying sinners. 
It did not make him instantly resolve to break off 
his sins by righteousness, and to seek the Lord while 
He might be found. 'Nol he stumbled upon that 
miserable device, so suited to the case of those who 
see their sins too plainly not to feel some anxiety on 
account of them; yet love them too dearly to give 
them up at once. Procrastination was his resource. 
He did not mean to go to that awful judgment-seat 
which Paul had so plainly set before him, with those 
sins unrepented of and unpardoned which Paul had 
so brought home to his conscience. He did not 
mean that the whole future of life should be but a 
continuation of what life had been. He did not 
mean that truths which had made him tremble, 
should, till his dying day, go unregarded. He did 
not mean that the minister of Christ, who had so 
probed his very heart, should no more have the op- 
portunity to do so. But he had had enough for that 
time. He had heard Paul concerning the faith in 



THE DANGER OF DELAY. 79 

Christ to such effect, that he dared listen to him no 
longer just then. Disturbed and alarmed beyond 
all his expectations, he must bring the interview to 
an end. "And as he reasoned of righteousness, tem- 
perance and judgment to come, Felix trembled and 
answered," stopping short the Apostle's speed, break- 
ing in upon that revealing of truth, which had thrown 
light upon his darkened and festering heart : "Go 
thy way for this time; when I have a convenient 
season I will call for thee." 

And so he did; aye, again and again; the very 
next verse tells us so; and tells us too the sad why: 
"He hoped also that money should have been given 
him of Paul; that he might loose him: wherefore 
he sent for him the often er; and communed with 
him." lie had heard Paul say, that he was the 
bearer of alms and offerings to his nation ; and 
knowing what a prominent and influential man 
Paul was among the Christians, supposed a large 
sum might be raised for his release. "But after 
two years, Porcius Festus came into Felix's room; 
and Felix, willing to show the Jews a pleasure, left 
Paul bound." There were many seasons conveni- 
ent for the indulgence of a mercenary, avaricious 
spirit; many seasons convenient for the offer of a 
bribe if Paul chose to make it. Two years of such 
opportunities of being made wise unto salvation, as 
his guilty and lost soul would now, doubtless, if it 
might, give even one minute to enjoy, passed fruitless 
by. Then, new spheres of life and effort carried him 
away from the man whose words had made him 
tremble, and left him, it may but too justly be 
feared, to perish in his own corruption. 



80 



SERMONS. 



"When I have a convenient season I will call for 
thee." Yes! but the thoughts, and feelings, and con- 
victions, which were struggling in his heart, and to 
which he had then no mind to yield, would they re- 
turn in the same power at any future season he might 
select? Could he command them back again, when 
he should have driven them away, to give place to 
the ordinary views, and feelings, and motives, which 
made him the ungodly man he was ? How was it, 
in fact, when he sent for Paul again ? when he com- 
muned with him the oftener? We do not read that 
he ever trembled again; but we do read that his or- 
dinary characteristics were in full development when- 
ever he chose again to send for and listen to the man 
who had once, and only once, so deeply moved him. 
Though he may not have been very near the king- 
dom of God, even when he trembled at Paul's 
preaching, and it is probable such a man was not, yet 
he never was nearer afterwards. The dark and sul- 
len tide of his evil nature, distracted for a moment, 
quickly swept on again, and drowned every better 
thought and purpose, which might else have been 
awakened. He might have thought he was speak- 
ing only to the Apostle when he said, " Go thy way 
for this time," but he would have comprehended his 
case far more clearly, had he felt that he was bidding 
away the very prospect of his being saved. The 
dense mists of unbelief, and indifference, and insen- 
sibility, and worldliness, quickly closed him in again, 
and so allowed him to drive on till he encountered 
a destruction without remedy. 

There are some cases presented in Scripture, in 



THE BANGER OE DELAY. 



81 



which one single occasion seems to have put men to 
the test, and to have been the very crisis in their 
spiritual history. It appears to have been so in the 
case of Pontius Pilate. The great question how he 
should act towards the Saviour, whether in obedience 
or in opposition to his convictions of right and duty, 
was suddenly presented to him, and he was obliged 
to decide that question at once: and having decided 
it, having resisted and done violence to the convic- 
tions of his understanding and conscience, his trial 
was over. He had made his choice, and he was left 
to abide by it. He had rejected his Saviour, and that 
Saviour had departed from him. So with Felix. He 
dismissed his convictions once, and we nowhere read 
that they ever came back to him: but what we do 
read, seems to intimate very plainly that they did not. 
His chains were partly broken; but he stopped the 
process that was freeing him, and ever after, it would 
seem, was he led captive by the devil at his will. 

]\ T o\v there is enough, one would suppose, in such 
histories, written expressly for our learning, to make 
people afraid of trifling with their convictions: 
enough to make people afraid of going contrary to 
what they know, and believe, and admit to be their 
duty. It may not happen with them, as it appears 
did with Pilate and Felix. It may not be any one 
occasion, that is to put them to a final test, and de- 
termine that if they reject the Lord, He will reject 
them forever. While it is said " God keepeth not 
his anger forever," and "My Spirit shall not always 
strive with man," and "he that being oft reproved, 
hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and 



82 



SERMONS, 



that without remedy," their day of grace may em- 
brace very many seasons of thoughtfulness and seri- 
ousness, very many occasions when the truth shall 
reach their hearts, and almost persuade them to be- 
come Christians. The things which belong to their 
peace may not be hid from their eyes, finally and 
forever, by any one act of resistance to their convic- 
tions, by any one grieving of the Holy Spirit of God. 
And yet the course of Pilate and of Felix is the 
common course. How many are there, who, if that 
truth-disclosing season, the hour of death, should 
suddenly overtake them, would confess they had been 
doing violence to their convictions ; had been practi- 
cally denying the Lord who bought them, and post- 
poning His claims ! 

Is it not with you, my brethren, many of you, just 
as it was with Felix? You do not mean, do not 
expect to stand before the judgment-seat of Christ 
just as you are now. You do not mean, do not ex- 
pect to depart this life without having made your 
peace with God, without having confessed Christ 
before men. You are only waiting for the convenient 
season; not any set time, near or far off: but that 
season which, if it determines nothing else, at least 
determines that you will not now obey when God 
calls ; that you will not now give Him your heart: that 
you will not own Him as your Lord; and begin to 
lead that godly and Christian life which only is the 
narrow way, in which the Lord has commanded you 
to walk. Two years did not bring the convenient 
season in the case of Felix; and many years have not 
brought it in your case. The Lord's language with 



THE DANGER OF DELAY. 



83 



regard to the barren fig-tree, — has it no application 
to you? "Lo! these many years I come seeking fruit 
on this fig-tree and find none!" The convenient 
season, with many of you, was not youth; youth, 
the season of all others in every point of view, the 
most favorable for seeking and serving God ; the 
season to which in all its fulness belongs that great 
and precious promise of God — "they that seek me 
early shall find me." ~Nayl it is not the convenient 
season. It is not the years of early man and woman- 
hood, for they are taking their flight; and still you 
have not been admitted into the fellowship of Christ. 
Religion, and the Christian profession is yet to be 
made, the Christian life yet to be entered upon. And 
there are those who have reached the meridian of 
life; yea, who are beginning to experience that de- 
clining of the faculties and powers of the body, which 
seems to enforce the question, "Is it well with thee?" 
and who have not yet begun to set their houses in 
order, in anticipation of that account of themselves 
which they must render unto God: who have not 
yet reached that convenient season, on which are 
staked all their hopes of being prepared to die ; of 
being prepared to stand before the judgment-seat of 
Christ. 

And when will they do so ? when will that season 
come which is to witness their entrance into the nar- 
row way which leadeth unto life ? "When will they 
begin to manifest somewhat of the real earnestness 
with regard to the interests of the next world, which 
they now manifest with regard to the interests of 
this ? "When truly and deeply anxious for the pardon 



84 



SERMONS. 



of their sins and the salvation of their souls"; they 
will indeed believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; and be 
baptized in His name; and become partakers at His 
holy table; and make it their aim and effort to live 
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world? 
When, oh! when will the convenient season come! 
As you look forward, can you think of any time 
which promises to be that season ? which promises 
to bring hesitation and procrastination to an end; 
and to find you altogether persuaded to become a 
Christian ? You have come to-day to hear concern- 
ing the faith in Christ, one who speaks to you under 
the same commission under which Paul spake to 
Felix; and who urges you, as you love your own sal- 
vation, not to indulge the spirit of delay; in reference 
to the great concerns of the eternal state. If you 
are not a Christian now, God calls upon you to-day to 
resolve in His strength, that you will become a 
Christian, and that at once. What is your reply, not 
to man, but to God? He it is who speaks to you; 
who calls you; who commands and entreats you, 
" Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved." " Arise and be baptized ; and wash away thy 
sins, calling upon the name of the Lord." "Seek ye 
the Lord while He may be found; call ye upon Him 
while He is near." And what is your answer to God? 
It is a solemn thing to have to make answer to God; 
and that is wdiat you are doing, and must do, and 
cannot avoid doing; as often as you are called by 
God's minister to come out on the Lord's side. What 
is your answer to God, I ask? Will you take the 
words of Felix, and at all hazards make them your 



THE DANGER OF DELAY. 



85 



own ? " Go thy way for this time ; when I have a con- 
venient season I will call for thee !" I have no thought 
or intention of deciding this week, whatever may 
be the consequence to my soul; I have no thought 
or intention of so soon fully resolving to take Christ's 
yoke upon me? 

My brethren, such an answer is no safer for you 
than it was for Felix. You never know; you never 
can know, in advance, what may be the consequences 
of thus disregarding when God calls. It is sinful, it 
is ungrateful, it is dangerous. Many, encouraged by 
God's long-suffering and forbearance, have said once 
too often — a go thy way for this time." Take heed 
that it be not so with you. Let your course, men 
and women, be the opposite of that of Felix. Let 
this time be the convenient season, and your answer 
to God's call, even this day, be without any needless 
delay. Say in penitence and faith, " I will, oh ! Lord, 
be henceforth thy disciple." 



8* 



SERMON V, 



THE PREACHING OF CHRIST. 

Then Philip went down to the City of Samaria, and preached Christ 
unto them. — Acts, viii. 5. 

A young minister of Christ had been cut off in the 
bloom of his age, and in the morning of his useful- 
ness. It was the deacon Stephen, of whom the 
word of God says, that, full of faith and power, he 
did great wonders and miracles among the people; 
that the Jewish opponents of Christianity " were not 
able to resist the wisdom and spirit by which he 
spake;" and that when he was arraigned before the 
Jewish council, and falsely accused of having said, 
"this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and 
shall change the customs Moses delivered us," " all 
that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, 
saw his face, as it had been the face of an angel." 
He was, indeed, standing upon the very verge of a 
glorious immortality. Probably within little more 
than an hour, the soul of that young minister, whose 
face was thus lighted up, would be in the guardian- 
ship of angels, on its way to the Paradise of God. 
For as he finished the address he made before the 
council in answer to the charges brought against 
him, " being full of the Holy Ghost, he looked up 
steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, 
(86) 



THE PREACHING OP CHRIST. 



87 



and Jesus Christ, standing on the right hand of God : 
and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the 
Son of man standing on the right hand of God." 
This so shocked and horrified the blinded and preju- 
diced minds of his Jewish enemies — the declaration 
that he actually there saw this Jesus in heaven, whom 
they were rejecting and despising — "that they cried 
out with a loud voice and stopped their ears, and 
ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of 
the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid 
down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name 
was Saul: and they stoned Stephen, calling upon 
God and saying, Lord Jesus! receive my spirit: and 
he kueeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord! 
lay not this sin to their charge: and when he had 
said this, he fell asleep." 

Oh ! what a gloom must have overspread the in- 
fant church at this sudden and violent death of so 
faithful and able and successful a young minister of 
the Lord Jesus ! How must the little band of Chris- 
tians in Jerusalem have been thunderstruck at this 
mysterious dispensation of the Providence of God ! 
For just then it seemed to be a time when such a man 
as Stephen could not possibly be spared. The work 
of converting a world lying in wickedness to Christ, 
had but just begun. The apostles, and the other 
ministers ordained by them, had but just commenced 
to carry out the Saviour's purpose : "that repentance 
and remission of sins should be preached among all 
nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Stephen, and 
six others with him, had just been admitted to the 
office and work of deacons in the Church of God by 



88 



SERMONS. 



the laying on of the apostles 5 hands. The word of 
the Lord had increased, and the number of the dis- 
ciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great 
company of the priests — the Jewish priests — were 
obedient to the faith. And just there, in the very 
heart and focus of Palestine, where so glorious a 
work was in progress — and just then, when the need 
of an increased ministerial force was beginning to 
make itself felt — the choicest spirit of that band of 
new and young recruits was stricken down by the 
hand of savage violence; and the tongue that had 
seemed destined to confound the enemies of Jesus, 
and to convert them into His friends and disciples, 
was hushed in death. Oh ! how must such an event, 
when the first dreadful, bewildering shock was over, 
have made the Christians hear the Lord speaking to 
them from heaven, and saying, "Be still and know 
that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen ; 
I will be exalted in the earth. . . . Stand still and 
see the salvation of God. . . . For my thoughts are 
not your thoughts ; neither are my ways your ways, 
saith the Lord." 

I remember once to have heard our beloved Bishop 
say, as he was speaking of the progress of God's 
work in the world: " the individual is of small ac- 
count in the accomplishment of God's purposes." 
And so he is. God blesses and honors the individ- 
ual in using him to do His work; but God does not 
need him. God can lay him aside, and carry on 
His great designs by other agents, even better adapted 
to His purposes, whom His Providence and grace 
can raise up. He can call Stephen out of life, with 



THE PREACHING OP CHRIST, 



89 



his ordination vows fresh upon his lips; and his 
heart and tongue and life one bright flame of devo- 
tion to the Saviour; hut the ongoing of the Gospel 
shall suffer no cheek; nay, actually be accelerated. 
The void, that the bleeding heart of the Church 
might have said never can be filled, shall be occu- 
pied by even a more glorious champion of the cru- 
cified and risen Jesus. It was so when Stephen 
died. That young, ambitious, talented Jew; that 
young lawyer, rapidly rising to eminence; the pride, 
at once, of the Jewish Church and the Jewish State; 
who had stood by when Stephen was stoned, and 
saw his heavenly composure, and heard his dying 
prayer for his enemies, and beheld him sweetly fall- 
ing asleep in Jesus; that young lawyer, ere long, 
was baptized for the dead, and stepped into the gap. 
St. Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles, even out- 
shone and did more than "the deacon, full of faith 
and power." 

'Nor was this all, as the narrative, in immediate 
connection with the text, informs us. "And Saul 
was consenting unto his death: and at that time 
there was a great persecution against the Church 
which was at Jerusalem ; and they were all scattered 
abroad, throughout the regions of Judea and Sama- 
ria, except the apostles. And devout men carried 
Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation 
over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the Church, 
entering into every house, and haling men and 
women, committed them to prison: therefore they 
that were scattered abroad went everywhere preach- 
ing the word so that the immediate result of the 



90 



SERMONS. 



death of Stephen and the accompanying persecu- 
tion was "the furtherance of the Gospel:" and this 
not only by the wide dispersion of ministers and 
people, but also by the deepened earnestness and 
the freshened zeal with which they would endeav- 
or, each in his proper sphere, and in a legitimate 
way, to bring others to know and believe in and 
love and serve Jesus. The thought of that short, 
brilliant life, so fruitful of glory to God and good to 
men ; the thought of that death, in one sense so 
shocking, yet in another so peaceful, so glorious, so 
demonstrative of the sufficiency of Jesus, for every 
emergency; these thoughts must have given an 
earnestness, directness, plainness, fervor, to the 
words and efforts of those Christian ministers and 
private Christians, which of themselves, and by the 
Divine blessing they drew down, account for the 
rapid progress of the Gospel ; the speed and power 
with which it laid hold upon one and another, and 
brought them in penitence and faith to Jesus. 

When Stephen was ordained, there kneeled be- 
side him, to receive the laying on of the apostles' 
hands, a youthful fellow-candidate for the ministry. 
Philip was his name. When the gifted and beloved 
Stephen died, and the fierce and relentless persecu- 
tion of the Christians broke out in Jerusalem, Philip, 
doubtless with the approbation of the apostles, who 
stood at their posts, and faced the storm, was one of 
those who fled the city, and went to carry abroad 
the Gospel, "the good tidings of great joy." "Then 
Philip went down to the City of Samaria, and 
preached Christ unto them." How he preached we 



THE PREACHING 0E CHRIST. 



91 



are not expressly told; but it may be inferred from 
both the circumstances preceding his visit to that 
city and the immediate results of his ministry there. 
He brought with him a mind and heart deeply im- 
pressed with a sense of the shortness and uncer- 
tainty of human life : for he had seen a brother in 
the ministry, ordained at the same time with him- 
self, suddenly and unexpectedly laid low in death. 
He brought with him a mind and heart filled, as 
they never had been before, with a sense of the pre- 
ciousness of Christ: for he had known and held 
sweet communion, in life, with a brother whom 
Jesus had brought to himself, and endowed with 
abounding gifts of grace: he had witnessed the 
entire consecration of that brother to the work to 
which he had been set apart by the Holy Ghost, " to 
fulfil the ministry of the Lord Jesus, to testify the 
Gospel of the grace of God." And when death had 
come suddenly and unexpectedly upon that brother ; 
not in the quiet of an earthly home, not amidst the 
tender and unwearying ministrations of human skill 
and love — all in highest exercise to save him if they 
might, or to soothe his passage to the grave ; but 
when death had come upon him, surrounded by a 
crowd of infuriated human enemies, hating him 
with a perfect hatred, and thirsting for his blood, 
Jesus had so been with him that all was peace and 
joy and hope, even then and there. He had trod- 
den in his Saviour's steps, praying with his dying 
breath for those who were murdering him. And 
Philip knew and felt in his heart's core, that Ste- 
phen's prayer to God his Saviour, " Lord Jesus ! 



92 



SERMONS. 



receive my spirit," had been answered, and that he 
had a brother in the ministry, " absent from the 
body and present with the Lord." And from that 
brother's life and death, Philip heard a trumpet call 
"Stand np for Jesus." Nobly did he respond to 
that call; standing up for Jesus; preaching in the 
City of Samaria, in the spirit of a man in earnest; 
in the spirit of a man whom the love of Christ did 
indeed constrain ; in the spirit of a man who knew 
that his dead brother had gained " the crown of 
righteousness;" who meant, the Lord being his 
helper, to gain one for himself, and to prevail with 
as many perishing sinners as he could, to come unto 
Jesus, and "to press towards the mark for the prize 
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 

The success of his ministry equally declares how he 
preached. Success is not always a test of truth. But 
it is usually a very conclusive proof, that great earn- 
estness and zeal have characterized the effort to 
propagate what has succeeded. It usually bespeaks 
the man in earnest, fervent in spirit, untiring in ef- 
fort. Doubtless all this was true in Philip's case. He 
did indeed wield the power of working miracles; and 
his miracles, proclaiming him in truth a messenger 
of God, gave authority and power to his words; but 
he was fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. . . " Speak- 
ing the truth in love ;" and his success was answerable 
and is his witness. "And the people with one ac- 
cord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake ; 
hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For 
unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out 
of many that were possessed with them; and many 



THE PREACHING OF CHRIST. 



93 



taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed : 
and there was great joy in that city. But there was 
a certain man called Simon, which before time in the 
same city used sorcery and bewitched the people of 
Samaria; giving out that himself was some great one : 
to whom they all gave heed from the least to the 
greatest, saying, this man is the great power of God : 
and to him they had regard; because that of a long 
time he had bewitched them with sorceries. But 
when they believed Philip preaching the things con- 
cerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus 
Christ, they were baptized, men and women. Then 
Simon himself believed also : and when he was bap- 
tized, he continued with Philip ; and wondered, be- 
holding the miracles and signs which were done." 
Success, immediate and amazing, even to the com- 
plete overthrow of the power and influence of im- 
posture and superstition ; and the ingathering of mul- 
titudes of both sexes, into the visible fold of Christ; 
success immediate and amazing attended upon the 
ministry of this fervent preacher of righteousness. 

Plainly does such success declare, what manner 
of spirit he was of. Impressively does it teach us, 
minister and people, that, "whatsoever we do," we 
should "do it heartily, as unto the Lord, and not 
unto men ; knowing that of the Lord we shall receive 
the reward of the inheritance, for we serve the Lord 
Christ." So especially in all efforts to promote the 
cause of God in the world, our hearts should be thor- 
oughly in the work. Our families; the congregation 
with which we are connected ; the Sunday-school in 
which we labor; the neighborhood in which we live ; 

" 9 



I 



94 



SERMONS. 



the circle of our friends and acquaintances; all should 
be sensible of the fervor of spirit in the Master's 
cause, which His grace has awakened, and will more 
and more, in the hearts of all who call upon Him. 
"Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord," should be the 
law of life; the rule of action, with every one to 
whom God has revealed Jesus, as Ms " Master and 
only Saviour." There is all the need now, that there 
was when Stephen fell asleep in Jesus, and Philip 
went down to the City of Samaria, of the ardent love 
of Christ' and zeal in His cause, which animated 
those faithful men, and resulted so soon in such 
abundant and blessed fruits. 

But the great secret of Philip's success is to be 
found, not in the earnestness and zeal with which he 
preached and labored, but in the Gospel he pro- 
claimed. " Then Philip went down to the City of 
Samaria, and preached Christ unto them." "What 
could resist the preaching of Christ ? That young man 
Saul, who witnessed the death of Stephen, and after- 
wards preached the faith which once he destroyed, 
Paul, in bis first epistle to the Corinthians, shows 
us what is the power of such preaching; how it is 
that it can carry all before it. He writes, "But we 
preach Christ crucified. To the Jews a stumbling- 
block, and to the Greeks foolishness: But unto them 
which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the 
power of God and the wisdom of God." It was the 
Almighty, All-wise Gocl; made man; crucified for 
sin ; risen again and exalted to the right hand of God, 
to give repentance unto Israel, and remission of sins; 
it was Jesus, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the 



THE PREACHING OF CHRIST. 



95 



Godhead bodily; whom Philip brought into contact 
and conflict with the ignorance, and superstition, and 
wickedness which reigned and ruled in the City of 
Samaria. But it went down before Him ; even as the 
trees of the forest are leveled by the breath of the 
tempest: and the fruits of repentance and faith in 
Jesus; and obedience to His commands" and ordi- 
nances were drawn forth by the gentle breathings 
of the Spirit of Christ; even as the face of nature 
wakes into life and beauty at the touch of the unseen 
finger of the Lord of Life. The account of St. Paul's 
success at Thessalonica, is the account of Philip's in 
Samaria. "Ye turned from idols, to serve the living 
and the true God; and to wait for His Son from 
heaven; even Jesus, which delivered us from the 
wrath to come." 

My brethren, you would not be surprised at the 
success of the life-boat, launched upon the raging 
waves, into the very midst of a crowd of human 
beings, struggling in the devouring waters. The felt 
necessities of the drowning, and the sufficiency of 
the life-boat, would crowd it with all who could pos- 
sibly reach or be reached by it, and be received from 
the jaws of death into its saving charge. Eo one 
would drown, though hundreds might be tossing 
about upon the angry waves ; no one would drown 
who could be taken into and find room in the life- 
boat. And who can perish that is in Christ ? And 
when, like Peter, sinful men and sinful women come 
to be sensible they are in momentary danger of per- 
ishing, that "condemned already," "the wrath of 
God abideth" on them; that until they have made 



96 



SERMONS. 



their peace with God, through faith in the Lord 
Jesus, the curse and condemnation of God's broken 
law, like an awful thunder-cloud of wrath, is hang- 
ing over their heads, and may, at any moment, by 
the lightning-stroke of accident, or disease, plunge 
them into the bitter pains of eternal death ; when 
this state of thought and feeling is produced by the 
power of the Good Spirit of our God; then the life- 
boat, even J esus, is perceived and felt to be, by the 
sinner, all his salvation and all his desire. Jesus 
Himself makes good His own gracious promise, " and 
I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." He 
was lifted up, an offering and a sacrifice to God; 
"that dying sinners, such as we, might plead a 
Saviour's name;" that He who is the light of the 
world, might by His holy word and Spirit, lighten 
our ignorance ; and by His infinitely meritorious obe- 
dience to laws we have not obeyed, by His precious 
obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, 
might save us from the deserved wrath of God; and 
purchase for us an inheritance of glory; and by His 
mighty resurrection and glorious ascension, and all- 
prevailing intercession in heaven, might gain for us 
and bestow upon us, all we need for life and death, 
for time and eternity. Whensoever, then, or where- 
soever, Christ has been, or shall be faithfully 
preached, Christ hath been and will be received. 
He will draw all men unto him. 

Do you ask what kind? Do you ask from what 
classes Christ will draw men and women unto Him? 
We answer, from all kinds and from all classes. No 
poor sinner is so deeply sunken in sin, and wretched- 



THE PREACHING OE CHRIST. 



97 



ness, and ruin, but the love of Jesus can reach, him, 
and open his heart, and raise him, and pardon him, 
and give him power to overcome all temptations, 
and enable him to make his way to heaven: though 
once, in unbelief and darkness and despair, he may 
have said, "If there be a hell, of nothing else but 
hell, have I any expectation." Yes, come unto Jesus, 
very prodigal though you be ; listen to His gracious 
voice speaking in your heart; and let Him draw you 
to Himself, that you may be pardoned and " saved 
through Christ with an everlasting salvation." Lis- 
ten to St. Paul's account of what Jesus did by his 
ministry: "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall 
not inherit the kingdom of God ! Be not deceived: 
neither fornicators ; nor idolators ; nor effeminate ; nor 
abusers of themselves with mankind; nor thieves ; nor 
covetous; nor drunkards ; nor revilers ; nor extortion- 
ers shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were 
some of you — but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified; 
but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
and by the Spirit of our God." Oh ! think of it, be 
animated and encouraged by it, to hope on, to hope 
ever. Let it save me and each of you, from the 
temptation of despairing of any one ; however far he 
may have gone from God; however long and reck- 
lessly he may have been wasting his day of grace. 
Did the preaching of Christ, the very hand, as it 
were, of God let down from heaven, that guilty and 
perishing sinners might seize upon it and be safe, 
did the preaching of Christ enable St. Paul to re- 
joice over even the worst, most vicious, most aban- 
doned of men; as washed, as sanctified, as justified 



98 



SERMONS. 



in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of 
our God? Then what sinner need yield himself 
hopelessly to the power and dominion of his sins ! 
and how shall any of us dare to discourage, by even 
the expression of a doubt, any poor wanderer whose 
softened heart is ready to cry, God be merciful to 
me a sinner !" 

Oh no, beloved ! Jesus says to you. to each and 
every one whose peace is not made with God, Jesus 
says to you, whoever you arc: whatever by the awful 
power of temptation you may have made yourself; 
Jesus says to you, " Come unto Me and I will give 
you rest." He who so loved you as to pour out His 
heart's blood for your pardon and salvation, beholds 
you guilty, condemned, tempted, in peril of eternal 
death, and He stretches out His gracious hand to 
you, and says, My son, my daughter, believe and 
live. Oh! be mine and you shall find in Me a ten- 
der, loving, Almighty Friend ; who will never, never 
leave you, nor forsake you ! 

" There was great joy in that city' 3 where Philip 
preached : " and when they believed Philip, preach- 
ing the things concerning the kingdom of God, and 
the name of Jesus Christ; they were baptized both 
men and women." Moral and immoral; all con- 
demned by the law of God, broken by all, fled "to 
the shelter of the cross, to find salvation there/' and 
by the sacraments Christ has instituted and ordained, 
were received into the fellowship of His religion ; 
started upon the course, which faithful unto death, 
they were to find the way of peace, the path that 
leadeth unto God's presence. The thunder of the 



THE PREACHING OF CHRIST. 



99 



violated law, for them was hushed ; for " there is no 
condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus ; who 
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit;" and 
the promises and grace of Jesus were pouring into 
their hearts "peace and joy in believing." 

As Philip went down to Samaria and preached 
Christ unto them, and men and women were added 
unto the Lord, let that, oh ! blessed Saviour, be the 
history of thy unworthy servant. Here may Christ 
be truly preached, truly received, truly followed to 
the everlasting salvation of souls, for whom Thou 
hast died, until at length, the whole be gathered into 
Thine eternal and glorious kingdom ! 



SERMON VI. 



RESISTANCE TO GOD. 
Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! — Isaiah, xlv. 9. 

There is something very awful in this thought ! 
The thought of a human being, striving with his 
Maker: setting up his will against his Maker's will; 
endeavoring to have his own way, however contrary 
to the way in which God would have him go. Is 
there not something awful in it ? And when we hear 
the words, "Woe unto him that striveth with his 
Maker!" we think perhaps that they can be meant 
only of very wicked persons; that none else could be 
guilty of such a sin. We think, for instance, of such 
a case, as that of Pharaoh, King of Egypt. He did 
strive against his Maker. He was obstinately op- 
posed to God's having His way. He was as obsti- 
nately bent upon having his own. He knew what 
the will of God was ; that he should let the Israelites 
go out of Egypt ; that he should liberate a nation of 
slaves. But he would not. He contended the point 
with God Almighty. 

Of course, my brethren, God Almighty might 
have made such a manifestation of Himself to Pha- 
raoh, as would have ended the strife at once. If I 
may so express myself: He might have come out 
from behind the ministers he employed, and the 
(100) 



RESISTANCE TO GOD. 



101 



means he employed., and terrified his guilty creature 
into instant suhmission. But He chose the plan most 
consistent with Pharaoh's character as an accounta- 
able beino*. He sent Moses and Aaron : men. as His 
ministers to inform Pharaoh what He required. He 
enabled those men to do such wonderful works, as, 
taken in connection with the objects for which they 
were wrought, left no doubt, even in Pharaoh's mind, 
that God had sent them. And when Pharaoh re- 
fused to do as was commanded, judgment after judg- 
ment came upon him; upon his land; upon his 
people; to subdue his obstinacy; to assure him how 
vain was his strife with God; to secure the promised 
deliverance to the Israelites. It is altogether possi- 
ble Pharaoh may have had a very imperfect appre- 
hension of the fact that he was really engaged in a 
strife with his Maker. He may have thought that he 
was rather measuring strength with Moses and Aaron; 
backed indeed by a mysterious and awful power, 
which they ascribed to the God of the Hebrews, but 
yet a power which they seemed to wield. However, 
his case is regarded, commonly, as a sort of excep- 
tion. He is looked upon as guilty of a sin of which 
few others have been guilty. He stands as a sort of 
representative of what, it is imagined, is the com- 
paratively small class of those, who strive with their 
Maker. 

But is it so ? Are there none of you, my breth- 
ren, of whom it is as true, as it was of Pharaoh, that 
you are striving with your Maker ? Is He having 
His will and His way; or are you having yours? 
Are you yielding to what you know to be His wishes, 



102 



SERMONS. 



or are you following out your own ? There is a strife 
going on in this world, against the Maker of this 
world; and you cannot possibly, any one of you, be 
neutral in that strife. You are taking part in it, for 
yourself, if you have not voluntarily and consciously 
laid down your arms and ceased your rebellion. It 
is not strange you should be hardly, if at all, sensible 
of this. You do not think you are striving with 
your Maker. You do not mean to be. You do not 
feel as if you were really disputing the point with 
God Almighty in any one particular. But let me 
ask you a plain question. Has He any right to have 
any will concerning you ? Do you acknowledge any 
authority in Almighty God, to choose a way for you, 
to say what you shall do, what you shall not do; how 
you shall live, how you shall not live ? If you do, 
then comes the question : Is He having His will and 
His way, or are you having yours ? Are you living 
the sort of life He has chosen for you, or are you 
living the sort of life you have chosen for yourself? 

There are cases, I suppose, in. which men would 
admit without hesitation, that they are striving with 
their Maker; going directly against His will, that 
they may have their own. The drunkard can hardly 
think otherwise, if he will think at all. When he 
reads in God's word, that drunkenness is one of the 
lusts of the flesh ; and the express and awful deci- 
sion, that no drunkard shall enter into the kingdom 
of God; he can hardly question that he is striving 
with his Maker. When he takes his way to those 
places of iniquitous merchandise, where he may 
drink and be drunken ; when in the retirement of 



RESISTANCE TO GOD. 



103 



his own home, he lays, as thousands have done, the 
foundation of a habit, that will finally prove too 
strong for him ; and bind him, body and soul, with 
a chain that never can be broken; he knows that he 
is at strife with his Maker. And it may not be 
without its use to say, that he who even on one oc- 
casion loses his self-control and obscures his intellect 
by drink, is as certainly a drunkard in that partic- 
ular instance, as he is a thief who steals but once, 
and to however trifling an amount. Certainly Al- 
mighty God so regards him. Drunkenness, whether 
occasional or habitual; whether in a high degree or 
a low degree, is a lust of the flesh, and exposes who- 
ever is guilty, to the fearful sentence of exclusion 
from the kingdom of heaven. Most certainly, in 
moments of sober reflection, one addicted to such a 
vice cannot but feel that he is striving with his 
Maker, having his own way in direct opposition to 
God' 3 will. And so, in all cases of what society 
terms decided immorality. The dishonest man; the 
licentious; the profane; the liar; the slanderer; the 
perjured man; he must be blinded indeed if he re- 
fuse to admit, he is striving with his Maker. He 
may make the admission with little, or without any 
compunction ; for such sins speak the individual 
very far gone in the way of evil; and they have a 
frightful power of producing spiritual insensibility. 
But he will hardly deny, he is going against the will, 
the law, the command of Almighty God. The man 
society calls a bad man, may care but little for the 
fact, but he knows he is at strife with his Maker. 
And so are all who are not at peace with God 



104 



SERMONS. 



through Jesus Christ our Lord: so are all who have 
not submitted themselves to the Gospel of the grace 
of God. Whatever may be their characters; what- 
ever may be the aspect of their course of life; they 
are striving with their Maker, if they have not given 
in their adherence to Him whom " God hath exalted 
to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance 
and remission of sins." They are holding out 
against God's arrangement and provision for their 
pardon and salvation. "Young men and maidens, 
old men and children," arrived at responsible age, 
how are they to be forgiven, to be at- peace with God, 
to be ready for the hour of death and the day of 
judgment, except by believing in the only begotten 
Son of God, made man and crucified for their sins ! 
By so believing in Him as to be baptized in His 
name, and to live a life according to His Gospel. If 
this present scene of things should suddenly close, 
and some catastrophe should hurry us all, who are 
here this day, out of life, that which is now a fact, 
but by so many hardly perceived to be such, or quite 
denied, would at once become manifest to all, that 
all are striving against their Maker who have not in 
heart and life yielded themselves to His Son Jesus 
Christ. 

Indeed, this is the great point of contest; of strife 
between man and his Maker; whether or not the 
Lord J esus Christ, God his Saviour, shall reign over 
him. If the rights of a son, in any important par- 
ticular, are denied and contested, will there not be a 
strife between those who contest and deny them and 
the father of that son ? God Almighty has a Son, 



RESISTANCE TO GOD. 



105 



whose rights to the love and obedience of every sin- 
ner He died to redeem and save are undeniable and 
infinitely sacred. The Father sent the Son to be the 
Saviour of the world. He says expressly, "neither 
is there salvation in any other, for there is none 
other name given under heaven, among men, where- 
by we must be saved." And the right of that Son 
is contested and denied. You, brethren — yes, many 
of you — are, by your lives, saying, "We will not 
have this man to reign over us." You dispute every 
inch of ground that lies between you and the ac- 
knowledgment of the right of this Son. You de- 
mand proof, and when it is furnished refuse the con- 
sideration of its claims. You postpone the decision 
which, so far as you individually are concerned, is to 
give the Son of God His rights, and to witness your 
penitent submission to Him as your Master and only 
Saviour. 

That solemn act, your baptism in the name of the 
Triune God, which, whenever it shall take place, 
will be an outward declaration that the strife with 
your Maker is at an end ; that you have at last fully 
submitted yourself as a lost and perishing sinner to 
that Son of God who lived and died to save you ; 
that solemn act is put off, week after week, month 
after month, though your Maker is ready, your Sa- 
viour is ready, and His minister is ready, and time 
and eternity, heaven and hell are appealing to you 
and saying, "And now why tarriest thou ? Arise and 
be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling upon 
the name of the Lord." Or, if you have been bap- 
tized, that sacred feast which Jesus makes, and by 

10 



106 



SERMONS. 



partaking of which you might declare, the strife is 
at an end ; I submit to Jesus; I give my heart and 
life to Him, who gave Himself for me; that sacred 
feast displays its bounties in vain to your unwilling 
hearts. 

Yes. alas ! it is a mournful truth, of which each 
succeeding day is affording new proofs, that you 
are striving with your Maker; that as life, with its 
solemn responsibilities and its eternal issues, is hast- 
ening on, you are having your own will — you are 
having your own way; while God's will is disre- 
garded, and the way He has marked out declined. 
There was a strife between Pharaoh and God; there 
is a strife between you and the same great and glo- 
rious, and merciful, and Almighty Being. Moses and 
Aaron, God's ministers, speaking in God's name, 
said, "Let my people go, that they may serve me !" 
and Pharaoh would not. And we, God's ministers, 
call upon you to believe in and obey the Lord Je- 
sus, God's own Son: God's vicegerent and repre- 
sentative ; and you icill not ! 

There are no such signs that a strife is going on, 
indeed, as there was in Pharaoh's case, when week 
after week you refuse God's call, and will not be 
persuaded to become Christians; no awful judg- 
ments sent upon you, convince you that you have 
sinned, and lead you to send for your minister and 
say, as Pharaoh did to Moses and Aaron, "I have 
sinned against the Lord your God and against you. 
Xow, therefore, forgive, I pray thee, my sin only 
this once, and entreat the Lord your God, that He 
may take away from me this death only." Xo aw- 



RESISTANCE TO GOD. 



107 



ful judgments visit you for your strife with your 
Maker. You go to your own homes, and all is well 
there: you go to your places of business and prose- 
cute your daily tasks. Health continues and other 
blessings; and though perplexities and trials, such 
as are common to man, overtake you. nothing hap- 
pens which causes you to feel, "this has come upon 
me. because I am striving with my Maker." And 
so you forget that you are doing so, or do not even 
credit such a thing; yet. that strife goes on, which, 
unless it shall cease and be repented of and forgiven 
for Christ's sake, will end in the loss of your soul ; 
will end in your eternal banishment from the pres- 
ence of your Saviour at the day of judgment. 

You are sinners, and there is only one way in 
which you can be pardoned and saved. The wis- 
dom and power and love and mercy of Almighty 
God have been exercised to provide that way, to rear 
the Cross, to provide the Lamb, to offer the saciflce; 
yet you fight with your Maker against that way. 
You have not, up to this day, believed with your 
hearts in the Son of God, your only Saviour and 
your only hope. You are not now living such a life 
of obedience to the Son of God as He commands, 
and as alone can give evidence, that you are resting 
your hopes as lost and perishing sinners upon Him. 
This world is God's house; and you are living in 
God's house, undutiful and rebellious children; not 
yet reconciled to your Father in heaven, through 
that elder Brother, even Jesus, who atoned for your 
sins and died that you might not die eternally. 

Dear brethren, can this thing be too plainly stated, 



108 



SERMONS. 



if indeed it be the truth; if you are so striving with 
jour Maker, that it cannot be well with you now, 
and would be eternally ill with you should death 
come upon you unawares; does it not become the 
watchman for souls to use great plainness of speech? 
You would not see a dear child in imminent danger 
without endeavoring to warn him of, and save him 
from that danger; no ! though the danger were to 
last but a few moments. 

And when it is firmly believed you are every day, 
all the while in danger; in danger of losing your 
own souls, and being cast-aways; in danger of losing 
the inestimable blessings which by His precious 
blood-shedding Christ hath obtained for you — words 
easy to be understood; words giving the greatest 
promise of commanding your attention and gaining 
an effective lodgment in your understandings and 
consciences and hearts; these are the words which a 
sense of duty, yea, which fidelity and affection to 
you imperatively demand. And how plain is it that 
you are striving with your Maker so long as you 
refuse to submit yourself to the only mode of recon- 
ciliation with Him, He has promised ! So long as 
you will not put yourself in the hands of that phy- 
sician, Jesus the Son of God, who only can cleanse 
you from your sins and heal your diseased nature, 
and prepare you for the purity and bliss of heaven. 

Suppose there was a dark and cancerous stain 
upon your body, expanding and deepening every 
day, and liable at any moment to take a form which 
would make it incurable and be speedily followed 
by death, and suppose a physician, who knew of 



RESISTANCE TO GOD. 



109 



one only remedy which applied in thousands of cases 
had never failed, should prescribe for you, it would 
be true to say you were at strife with that physician 
if for whatever reason you refused to use his rem- 
edy, the only one that possibly could save you. And 
this is every sinner's case. There is a dark and can- 
cerous stain upon his soul — the stain of the guilt of 
his sins against God. It is all the while growing 
worse, and death renders it forever incurable. There 
i3 only one remedy, only one, that " blood which 
cleanseth from all sin." And that remedy is ap- 
plied by a true and living faith in God the Saviour. 
The Great Physician's prescription is: "He that be- 
lievethin me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; 
and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall 
never die.'" 

Have you applied that remedy? or are you still 
questioning whether there is any disease to be cured? 
whether that is the remedy? whether it may not be 
dispensed with? Have you applied that remedy? 
Putting a heart-trust in its efficacy and sufficiency, 
have you, in baptism, given expression to that trust, 
and put yourself, for life and for eternity, into the 
hands of Him in whom you have redemption through 
His blood, even the forgiveness of sins ? If not, 
then ^till are you striving with your Maker. And 
what are His words ? W hat His recorded decision ? 
Even this — "The Father loveth the Son, and hath 
given all things into His hand : He that believeth 
on the Son (you know what sort of belief is meant — 
the belief which is to be backed by the life, to have 
its genuineness practically shown) ; he that believeth 

10* 



110 



SERMONS, 



on the Son, hath everlasting life; and he that be- 
lieth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of 
God abideth on him." 

Little space has been left to think or speak of what 
must follow. ""Woe unto him that striveth with 
his Maker." "The wrath of God abideth on him." 
Not a wrath, of which he is now conscious, or that 
now seems to do him any harm; not a wrath he 
may feel, in any of its effects, at any time during 
this present life : but a wrath to come, and yet now 
abiding on him, just as his execution may be said to 
be an execution to come, and yet an execution now 
abiding upon the convicted, condemned criminal, 
awaiting in his cell the day that shall witness the 
infliction of the penalty. The wrath of God abideth 
on him : for God is angry with the wicked every 
day: and while He is ready to be at peace with 
them; while He has shown His readiness by pro- 
viding an all-sufficient atonement for their sins; giv- 
ing His own Son to humiliation, suffering and death, 
freely for us all: while He has waited to be gra- 
cious, oh! how long! oh! how patiently! under 
how many and grievous provocations! if all is in 
vain — if sinners will not turn — the wrath of God— 
a displeasure, righteous, inevitable, enduring, and 
should death come while this state of things contin- 
ues, eternal — the wrath of God abideth on him! 
"What can come of such a strife ? so sinful, so fool- 
ish, so ungrateful on the sinner's part? It is but 
hardening his own heart; holding out against the 
claims of such a God; of such a Saviour; it is but 
storing up in his memory thoughts which will here- 



RESISTANCE TO GOD. 



Ill 



after overtake him, with shame and confusion of 
face and everlasting remorse. It is but justifying 
the sentence which the Judge of all the earth must 
finally pronounce, on all who shall have held out to 
the last, in this senseless and guilty strife, " Depart 
from me, all ye workers of iniquity!" 

Say you, dear brethren, that though you do many 
things you ought not to do, and leave undone many 
things you ought to do: that though you have not 
been baptized, or become communicants; and are 
sensible you cannot consider yourselves as Chris- 
tians; and would be afraid to die, just such as you 
are now: that though all this is so, you do not in- 
tend to be striving with your Maker; do not really 
feel as if you were; can hardly understand how, 
with such respectful feelings towards religion, you 
can be considered as, all the while, guilty of so great 
a sin as striving with your Maker? Do you suppose, 
let me ask, that Eve thought she was striving with 
her Maker? Do you suppose that the idea was 
distinctly before her mind? The question now is, 
whether God shall have His will and way, or shall I 
have mine? and my course must decide that ques- 
tion one way or the other. She no more thought 
she was striving with her Maker, than you now think 
you are. She knew, as you know, what the will of 
her Maker was. But she had her own will, and that 
was to do otherwise than God allowed. She did not 
see before her, banishment from Eden; suffering 
and sorrow and death ! It was all to be taken on 
trust that any such consequences would actually fol- 
low. She did not intend to strive with her Maker ; 



112 



SERMONS. 



did not really feel as if she were doing so; could 
not imagine that with such respectful feelings to- 
wards God; she was yet committing so great a sin. 
But it was not what she thought: it was the fact of 
the case, that determined her position. She was 
striving against her Maker. She had hut to ask 
herself: Is God having His will, or am I having 
mine? Am I taking God's way, or am I taking my 
own? 

What then is the fact in your case? Place your- 
self in thought before the cross of Christ. He who 
hangs there is God your Saviour. Those awful suf- 
ferings He is enduring are for your sins: to save your 
soul; to make it possible you should be pardoned, 
prepared for heaven, admitted there. And this is 
His commandment — " That we should" believe in 
the name of His Son Jesus Christ.'' Is He having 
His will, or are you having yours? Are you prac- 
tically contending the point with the Almighty, 
whether the Son of God shall reign over you, as 
His penitent and believing disciple? What is the 
fact? And if you are striving with your Maker, 
cease that strife at once, lest that woe come upon you, 
which even the love, the mercy, the power of Al- 
mighty God Himself will never remove from you ! 



sermon m 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 

Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a 
Christian. And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, 
but also all that hear me this day, were both almost and alto- 
gether such as I am, except these bonds. — AcTSj xxvi. 28, 29. 

To persuade a man to be a Christian, was, in the 
Apostle's judgment, a result so much to be desired; 
so much to be rejoiced in; that when the idea was 
held out that, that result was almost reached in the 
case of, at least, one of his hearers; it draws from 
him the fervent exclamation: "I would to God, 
that not only thou, but also all that hear me this 
day, were both almost and altogether such as I am," 
a Christian ! He had known in his own experience 
what it was, not to be a Christian : and he felt he 
could have no better wish for any human being, than 
that he might be fully persuaded to believe in the 
Lord Jesus Christ; to confess Him before men; to 
have the privileges, and blessings, and hopes, which 
belong to those who have given their hearts unto 
the Lord. St. Paul had lived many years of his 
life; at least to early manhood; without having had 
any sense of his necessities as a sinner before God. 
He had thought and felt that whatever might be 
necessary in order to his enjoying God's favor in 

(113) 



114 



SERMONS. 



this life, and in that which is to come, he could do 
for himself. He fancied he could recommend him- 
self to the Divine favor. It was impossible, of course, 
that a man in such a state of mind, should look unto 
Jesus; should recognize in Him, the Son of God be- 
come the Son of man : should be sensible, that all 
his hope of being pardoned; of being saved from 
the bitter pains of eternal death; of being prepared 
for, and exalted unto everlasting life; depended upon 
what the Lord Jesus Christ had done and suffered 
to save sinners. But he came to know and feel he 
was a sinner, a lost sinner, and to write as the ex- 
pression of his deepest conviction and his most ardent 
feeling — " this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all 
men to be received, that Christ Jesus came into the 
world to save sinners." Could you find words to 
express your feelings towards the man, who should 
have saved you from poverty and imprisonment, 
shame, disgrace and rain and death, and filled your 
heart with the most joyful feelings and the highest 
hopes ? All this, Jesus Christ had done for St. Paul, 
in saving him from his sins. What wonder St. Paul 
should have so fervently desired all others should 
enjoy a friendship so precious : all others should, as 
had been the case with himself, be fully persuaded to 
become Christians! 

The man who said unto him, "almost thou per- 
suadest me," was a man of high rank, and of exten- 
sive influence. But there were many others present 
at the Apostle's address, of various ranks and condi- 
tions of life. Much such a crowd as gathers together 
in a court-room, in our day, when any trial of special 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



115 



interest takes place. And not one of that crowd was 
there, whose conversion from sin, to the faith and 
obedience of Christ, the Apostle did not fervently 
desire. As his eye ranged over that assembly ; em- 
bracing, as it did, men of high estate and men of low 
estate; men who were living in luxury and men who 
were battling with the trials of poverty ; the educated 
and the uneducated ; as his eye wandered over that 
assembly, such thoughts as these were in his mind. 
"And all these souls must be judged by Thee at the 
last day; by Thee the Judge of all flesh; every one; 
each one, in his own order, singly, by himself, for his 
own deeds clone in the body; they are now sowing 
to immortal life, or immortal death ; to true life, or 
to true death; to life immortal with Thee, if Thou 
acceptest them in Thy mercy; to death eternal in 
the gulf of death, if Thou turnest away Thy face from 
them, and knowest them not in that day. Every 
face that I behold, must be changed by the mighty 
working of Thy power into an eternal fashion, fit for 
the eternal enjoyment of Thine own kingdom, or for 
the place of devils: yea, not face only must be 
changed, but the whole body; and not only the body, 
but body and soul together. God ! when I look 
upon this present fashion of these people, I am filled 
with a great awe, not knowing what # their change 
will be, their eternal fashion ; and seeing how great 
a work each soul has to perform in this short life to 
be ripe for Thy coming!" 

With such thoughts in his mind, all remembrance 
of differences in rank and station and worldly cir- 
cumstances faded from his view. He saw before 



116 



SERMONS. 



him, only a multitude of fellow-sinners for whom 
Christ died; whom Christ would judge; and who, 
if not saved through Christ with an everlasting sal- 
vation, would he punished with an everlasting de- 
struction from the presence of the Lord and from the 
glory of His power. Therefore while King Agrippa, 
a man of rank and wealth and influence, might have 
been thinking somewhat, of how much Christianity 
would gain by such a convert ; Paul was thinking 
only, what he, a lost sinner, would secure by coming 
unto Christ; and feeling that every man who heard 
him, was just as precious in God's sight, as Agrippa. 
All were in the same guilt, the same necessity and 
the same danger. He, so to speak, threw the arms 
of his fervent Christian wishes around them all, and 
exclaimed, " I would to God that not only thou, but 
also all that hear me this day, were both almost and 
altogether such as I am." Every man in that assem- 
bly, as he heard the solemn and earnest words of 
that warm-hearted minister of Christ, felt, that there 
certainly was one that cared for his soul, and who 
thought it vastly important, he should be fully per- 
suaded to be a Christian. 

The Apostle was not content with saying, I trust 
that gradually one after another of you will be 
brought to confess the Lord who bought you ; that 
in the course of months and years all who hear me, 
will have all their difficulties removed, and be fully 
persuaded in penitence and faith to be baptized in 
the name of the Lord Jesus. He felt, that he who 
"died daily" was addressing men, like himself, in 
hourly peril of death: that there was no time for 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



117 



delay: that the vast concerns of an eternal world, 
were too vast, to brook the thoughts of that awful 
peril, which hesitation and procrastination, necessa- 
rily incurred. Therefore it was his heart's desire to 
God; that all who heard him that day, were even 
then, might he at once, just what he himself was. 
Sometimes when we express a wish, we say, we may 
as well wish for all we want, as for anything short 
of it. But in such cases, we are expressing a wish, 
we feel could not possibly be gratified. It could not 
have been so with St. Paul. He did not look upon 
it as an impossible thing; that even that assembly 
might have its heart bowed, that day, as the heart 
of one man. Such a thing had been in that time 
of the abundant outpouring of the Spirit. " About 
three thousand souls were added to the Lord " on one 
occasion of blessing; and there had been other pre- 
cious seasons of ingathering. It might be, that day 
would record even many names, never to be blotted 
out, in the Lamb's book of life. This, beyond a 
doubt, the Apostle felt, that there was no man within 
hearing, whom his words might not, even that day, 
fully persuade to be a Christian; no one but the Lord 
might open his heart; and assuredly, no one, but 
whose conversion, even that day, it was inexpressibly 
important should be accomplished. 

But while the bare idea of success, even in one 
case, held out, perhaps, by Agrippa's words, "almost 
thou persuadest me to be a Christian," while the bare 
idea of success, even in one case, drew forth from 
the Apostle, the large-hearted wish, that not only 
Agrippa but also all who heard him were Christians ; 

11 



118 



SERMONS. 



that word "almost" doubtless struck painfully upon 
his ear: " almost, thou persuadest me." He knew 
full well, how the almost persuaded, might, after all, 
die in their sins, and lose their own souls. He knew 
full well, how the craft and subtilty of the devil 
might even cause sinners, not only to feel the more 
easy, but actually the more safe, for having been 
"almost persuaded; 5 ' as if that was actually a step 
towards heaven , which yet might only serve to aggra- 
vate the miseries of hell; because, certainly those 
who have almost been persuaded to become Chris- 
tians, and go no further, must do violence to the 
convictions of their own understandings and con- 
sciences; and do despite to the Spirit of grace, and so 
make themselves more guilty before God; and if, 
cut off unprepared to meet Him, be the more miser- 
able for remembering how they stopped short, when 
they were in the way of a repentance unto life, a 
saving faith in J esus. 

"We fix and render permanent and influential the 
serious impressions and thoughts and feelings and 
convictions, aroused in and impressed on our minds, 
when we act upon them; when we allow them to 
carry us forward in the path of obedience to God our 
Saviour. But they die out and fade away and are 
lost, when we do not act upon them; when we resist 
them; when we stifle and suppress them. Many a 
man and woman on a death-bed; comforted by no 
hopes ; but either filled with a horrible dread, or an 
equally horrible insensibility, in regard to their eter- 
nal condition; many a man and woman in such a 
fearful case, has been able to look back and say, Oh! 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



119 



had I but yielded to my convictions that time ! had I 
but acted out the impressions made upon me then! 
had I only allowed myself to be fully persuaded when 
it was so evident, and I felt God was solemnly call- 
ing me ! I might now have been dying the death of 
the righteous, instead of being without hope and 
without God, in this my dread extremity. Yes, truly 
that word " almost" must have struck painfully upon 
the Apostle's ear. Almost persuaded to be a Chris- 
tian ; then only almost saved : and only almost saved 
is to be actually and eternally lost. What comfort 
to think of their having looked towards heaven ; of 
their having taken a step that way ; if after all, they 
turned back to the world, the flesh and the devil ; 
and refusing to confess Christ before men, were un- 
washed by His blood, unpurified by His Spirit ? 

" I would to God, that not only thou, but all that 
hear me this day, were both almost and altogether 
such as I am except these bonds." He was a prisoner ; 
for no crime, except believing in, and obeying and 
preaching the Lord Jesus. He had no desire any of 
them should be like him, in this respect. But that 
they should be like him, in so far as he was a Chris- 
tian; like him in the sincerity and earnestness of his 
repentance for his sins; like him in his whole-hearted 
trust in Jesus Christ as God his Saviour; like him in 
the openness with which he confessed his Master; 
like him in the support and consolation he had in 
every time of trouble ; like him in the blessed hopes 
and prospects he had, when he thought of his de- 
parture out of this life into that which is to come. 
He knew that he had renounced his own righteous- 



120 



SERMONS. 



ness and submitted himself to the righteousness of 
God. He knew that while he was spending, and by 
God's help, meant to spend, whatever might remain 
of his life, in striving to serve the Lord Christ; to 
live soberly, righteously, godly ; yet when he should 
come to die and to be judged ; this would be all his 
plea ; this his only ground of hope of pardon and 
salvation — " Christ J esus came into the world to save 
sinners and whoever his hearers might be, and 
whatever they might be ; he " would that they were 
almost and altogether" such as he was. 

Think of that. The Apostle was not afraid or 
ashamed thus publicly to declare his wish that all 
who heard him that day, might be what he was. 
He knew that he was a Christian ; a truly penitent 
man ; a true believer ; an honest, earnest servant of 
the Lord Jesus Christ. He felt that if the people he 
was addressing should become what he was, they 
would be at peace with God through our Lord Jesus 
Christ ; would be walking in the narrow way that 
leadeth unto life. He was not afraid the cause of his 
Master would suffer by such a wish. However people 
might reproach and censure, and despise him per- 
haps, for being a follower of the Lord ; he knew that 
no one would deny that he was a Christian ; no one 
would cast it in his face that though he called him- 
self a Christian he was no ways different from other 
people. Communicants of this parish, would you be 
willing to say what the Apostle did ? If you were 
engaged in conversation with a person, who had yet 
to come out on the Lord's side; would you be will- 
ing, or feel it safe to say, "I would to God you were 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



121 



almost and altogether such as I am ?" Would none 
of you be afraid of the retort, " I do not see any evi- 
dence in your life, that you are any ways materially 
different from me : what interests me most, seems to 
interest you quite as much. I do not know that I 
mind earthly things any more than you do. I do not 
know that if I should become almost and altogether 
such as you are, any change would be required, but 
simply that I should be baptized, confirmed, received 
to the Holy Communion?" You all know, that it 
was not pride, or self-conceit, or self-righteousness 
that induced St. Paul to say what he did; but simply 
the testimony of his own conscience, that in sim- 
plicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom, 
but by the grace of God he had his conversation in 
the world. It may not perhaps be your duty, to say 
just what he did to any one ; but certainly it is your 
duty to be able to say it, if need be. It is your duty 
to be living such an undeniably Christian life, that if 
you should say to any one you wished to influence, 
" I would to God you were almost and altogether 
such as I am," he or she would feel ; " if I were, cer- 
tainly, I should be, beyond all question, a true 
Christian." 

It is either a false humility, or what is far worse, 
a consciousness of inconsistency, that makes Chris- 
tians unwilling to have others look to them as ex- 
amples; that makes them shrink from being re- 
garded as what their very profession supposes and 
requires them to be; the salt of the earth; the light 
of the world; a city set on a hill that cannot be hid. 
There can be no doubt or question as to what is a 

11* 



122 



SERMONS. 



Christian's duty in this respect. The Master's own 
words arc: "Let your light so shine before men, 
that they may see your good works and glorify," not 
you, hut "your Father in heaven." A person may 
perhaps appear a Christian, without actually being 
one; but no one can be a Christian, without appear- 
ing one. "It is true those who are not Christians 
are often harsh and unjust; unreasonable and un- 
charitable in their judgment respecting those who 
are." An earnest, sober-minded Christian will often 
be spoken of as sad and gloomy. The cheerful, 
buoyant temperament of another will subject him 
to the charge of undue -gayety. Even so was it in 
the days of our Lord, "For John the Baptist came 
neither eating nor drinking that is, leading a very 
austere life, being very peculiar in his dress and diet 
and whole manner of living; "and ye say, he hath 
a devil : the Son of Man came eating and drinking," 
without any marked peculiarity in these respects, 
"and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man and a wine- 
bibber; a friend of publicans and sinners !" Those 
who are willing to excuse their own neglect of re- 
ligion, will always find something in Christians to 
serve their purpose, be Christians what they may. 
They will be too sad, or too cheerful ; too much in- 
terested in, the affairs of this life, or too little; too 
zealous, or not zealous enough; too high strung in 
their notions of duty, or too much like other peo- 
ple; too self-denying, or not self-denying enough ! 

Where man or woman is trilling with conviction; 
endeavoring to quiet an awakened and reproving 
conscience ; bent upon not taking the course which 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



123 



is felt to be obligatory; it is the easiest thing imag- 
inable to make use of Christians; what they are, and 
what they do; for this purpose. Reasonably or 
without reason, they may find so much to fault in 
those who do call themselves Christians, as actually 
to forget their own solemn obligations to do so. 
Looking at others, they may lose sight of themselves ; 
their own guilt ; their own danger; their own duty; 
their own destiny. Continuing to neglect the great 
salvation, they may go to that judgment-seat, at 
which unquestionably all faithless Christians shall 
have righteous judgment; but where none who shall 
have wilfully refused to become Christians, will 
escape the just judgment of God. " Every one shall 
bear his own burden." "Every one shall give ac- 
count of himself to God." That Christians, who are 
not what Christians ought to be, do prove stumbling- 
blocks in the way of those who have yet to be fully 
persuaded to become Christians, I am most deeply 
and painfully sensible: that, if all who name the 
name of Christ, were so living in this world, that 
they would dare to say, if occasion required, " I 
would to God, you were both almost and altogether 
such as I am" — that if all Christians were able, in 
humility, yet without fear, to say this, a mighty in- 
fluence would be exerted in winning the erring and 
sinful to the obedience of Christ, is unquestionably 
true. 

But what is it to you ? ye who have yet to make 
your peace with God; yet to seek the pardon of 
your sins; yet to come in penitence and faith to bap- 
tism, confirmation, and the supper of the Lord; 



124 



SERMONS. 



what is it to you, if you can point to a Christian 
here and there ; to even many who are not what 
Christians ought to be? Will God call you into 
judgment for their inconsistencies? Will He par- 
don your sins because of theirs ? Will He save 
your souls, if you continue in impenitence and un- 
belief and disobedience; because you have fault to 
find with Christians, and perhaps He has too ? When 
you shall come to die, will the remembrance of 
many Christians you have known ; who did not 
seem as if they really thought of death and of the 
judgment after death; will the remembrance of them 
give you any reasonable ground of hope, that you 
will be safer in the day of His appearing? You have 
a soul of your own, redeemed and undying. You 
have an account of your own to render unto God. 
You are on your way to the Eternity which is to 
witness your unspeakable bliss, or your unfathoma- 
ble wretchedness. Oh ! think of yourselves ! That 
is enough for you ! Hear the call of God addressed 
to you, reminding you of your own sins ; your own 
necessities ; your oicn destiny; saying to you, not, 
do other people give me their hearts? but, "my 
son, my daughter, give me yours." 

My brethren, we have now been looking upon a 
scene, the actors in which have all long since passed 
away. The mortal lips of that minister of Christ, 
who so fervently plead his Saviour's cause, have for 
ages been silent in the dust of death. Agrippa and 
all who heard Paul that day, have finished their 
course, and are awaiting the decisions of the Judg- 
ment And when the trumpet shall sound; and the 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



125 



dead shall arise; and the Judgment shall be set; and 
the books shall be opened; Agrippa and the man 
who was arraigned before his tribunal, together with 
all who heard him that day, will stand before the 
judgment-seat of Christ. And so shall we, who are 
associated this day, in just the relation which sub- 
sisted between St. Paul and those who heard him. 
That was to them, a day of visitation; when they 
might have known the things which belonged to 
their everlasting peace. To-day, is such a day to 
you. The same Saviour whom Paul preached, is 
preached to you, and it is as infinitely important you 
should believe in Him and confess Him before men, 
as it was in the cases of those whom the Apostle 
called. There is all the reason your minister should 
say "I would to God ye were almost and altogether " 
Christians, as there was for St. Paul's saying it. For 
the question of your everlasting destiny is hanging 
in suspense; and we know not how short a time may 
decide it. 

Those who are only almost persuaded, are in as real 
danger of being surprised, unprepared to meet their 
God, as those who have given the call of God no 
consideration whatever. You must close with God's 
offers, or you have no hold on God's promises. If 
you are only almost persuaded to give your heart to 
Christ, and to take His yoke upon you; surely, you 
cannot suppose that pardon and grace and everlast- 
ing life are made sure unto you. How explicit is our 
Saviour's own promise, "He that believeth and is 
baptized shall be saved." And he that is confirmed, 
or received to the Holy Communion, supposing him 



126 



SERMONS. 



to come with, a true penitent heart, and a lively faith 
in God's mercy through Christ, is regarded as taking 
virtually the like step. It is a closing with God's 
offers to the sinful and perishing. It is an inward 
and an outward acceptance of His mercy. It is a 
sealing of the covenant between a reconciled God 
and his forgiven and accepted creatures. He is ready 
to sign and seal that covenant with any and every 
one of you. And are you not also ready? Can you 
find one reason for delay, which will approve itself 
to your own conscience? which would make you 
feel ; if you should be called suddenly to your great 
account; that reason will excuse me to the Judge of 
quick and dead, for my never having been fully per- 
suaded to be a Christian ? 

St. Paul's hearers, that day, were probably all men. 
It was a man, who owned he was almost persuaded. 
They were men, whom the Apostle so fervently 
wished might be fully persuaded. And beyond a 
question upon no accountable creatures of God, does 
the obligation to become Christians, press more 
heavily than upon men. The husband owes it to his 
wife; the father owes it to his children ; to become a 
Christian, as imperatively as he owes it to his own 
soul. What ! will you tell me, you oppose no hin- 
drance in the way of wife, or sons, or daughters ? 
Will you tell me they know your willingness they 
should become Christians, if they choose ? And do 
you not know that in the intimacy of such relation- 
ships, your decision may anticipate the decision of 
wife, or son, or daughter? Or, if too deeply con- 
vinced of their independent responsibilities and spir- 



THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 



127 



itual needs; wife, or sons, or daughters should re- 
solve upon becoming Christians, despite your refusal 
to do so — oh! what discouragements! oh! what 
hindrances ! does the irreligious father, the husband 
who cares for none of these things, necessarily throw 
in the way of wife, or son, or daughter, struggling to 
live a godly life and make their calling and election 
sure ! When the hour of parting shall have come ; 
and wife, or son, or daughter, is on the eve of that 
eternal world, in which endless happiness or woe 
awaits them : will you not wish from the bottom of 
your hearts, husbands and fathers, that whatever en- 
couragement and comfort, your having been Chris- 
tians could have afforded they might have enjoyed? 
And will not the unhappy husband or father, who 
in the day of Judgment shall have to answer to his 
God, for having prevented wife or children from be- 
coming Christians; or for having denied them the 
countenance and encouragement of his companion- 
ship, in striving to serve God and prepare for death, 
— will not such unhappy husband or father be amazed 
that he should have cared so little for the precious, 
redeemed soul of wife or child, as actually to have 
stood in the way of its being saved ? 

I tell you, husbands and fathers, that you have a 
real and most solemn responsibility in this matter. 
The interests, the eternal interests of those who are 
so dear to you, make an appeal to you, which you 
ought not to disregard. I ask you; would it have no 
influence upon wife, or son, or daughter, to kno\Y 
that you were fully persuaded to be a Christian? I ask 
you, if you should resolve to be baptized, confirmed, 



128 



SERMONS. 



admitted to the Holy Communion ; would there not 
be hope that the moved and melted heart of wife or 
child would say, "I will go also?" You owe it to 
your own soul, and to that blessed Saviour who died 
to save your soul; you owe it to those who are so 
nearly related to you ; to say, not almost, but alto- 
gether thou persuaclest me to be a Christian. 

Yet while all should remember, "none of us liveth 
unto himself that we exert an influence, whether we 
will or no ; and are responsible to God for the character 
of that influence — it is equally important we should 
bear in mind that we are individually responsible for 
the course we individually take. It might make your 
path very much easier, if a near relative would unite 
with you in confessing Christ before men. But if 
you must needs do so alone, it is none the less your 
duty; none the less important and necessary that 
duty should be discharged. You have responsibili- 
ties of your own ; from which no earthly being can 
relieve you. You have sins of your own to be par- 
doned, and a soul of your own to save. God speaks 
to you, one by one; and you must hear Him, and 
heed Him, as if He were speaking to no one else. 
Your minister is but the agent by which God speaks 
to you ; and your reply to his call, is a reply — oh ! 
remember this — is a reply returned to your God! 
Can you, will you, by the decision of your own heart, 
say to God who made, redeemed, and will judge 
you, — can you say only, " almost Thou persuadest 
me to be a Christian ?" Shall not your reply, conse- 
crating' you for life and for eternity, to God your 
Saviour be — " I am altogether persuaded V* 



SERMON Yin. 



THE EREENESS OF GRACE. 

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, 
If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink — St. John, 
vii. 37. 

It was in the autumn of the year; in the Jewish 
month Tisri, which corresponds with the latter part 
of our September and the beginning of our Octo- 
ber; it was at that season that the Jews observed the 
third and last of their three yearly festivals ; called 
the Feast of Tabernacles. That feast was kept in 
remembrance of their having dwelt in tabernacles 
or tents during their forty years journey from Egypt 
to the land of Canaan; and it was their annual 
thanksgiving. It lasted eight days; the first and 
last days being "a solemn assembly" and "a Sab- 
bath." 

There was one person present, observing the feast, 
on the occasion to which the text refers, who did in 
Himself fulfil the idea which the Feast of Taber- 
nacles has been said to have beautifully shadowed 
forth. That person was Jesus. St. John, speaking 
of Him, in the first chapter of his gospel, writes: 
" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was 
with God, and the Word was God; and the Word 
was made flesh and dwelt among us," or as the 

12 (129) 



130 



SERMONS. 



Greek words strictly rendered are, " tabernacled in 
us." There was God the Son tabernacled in hu- 
manity. "For," as St. Paul writes, "in Him dwell- 
eth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." That 
last day, that great day of the feast, was a specially 
solemn day on that occasion. For it was the last 
Feast of Tabernacles which the Son of God would 
ever honor and bless with His presence and instruc- 
tions and promises. When next year the same feast 
should be observed, He would be in heaven, "in 
the glory which He had with the Father before the 
world was." His atoning death, His mighty resur- 
rection, His glorious ascension, all would have taken 
place. " In the last day, that great day of the feast, 
Jesus stood and cried." "Stood" where all might 
see, "cried" that all might hear; a strong cry of re- 
proof, of warning, of invitation. " Jesus stood and 
cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and 
drink." 

We are told that " on the last day of the Feast 
of Tabernacles, the Jews fetched water, in a golden 
pitcher, from the fountain of Siloam, springing at 
the foot of Mount Sion without the gate: they 
brought it through the water gate into the Temple, 
and poured it, mixed with wine, on the sacrifice, as 
it lay upon the altar, with great rejoicing. " They 
seem to have taken up this custom (for it is not or- 
dained in the law of Moses), as an emblem of fu- 
ture blessings ; in allusion to this passage of Isaiah, 
"Ye shall draw water with joy from the fountains 
of salvation;" expressions that can hardly be un- 
derstood of any benefits afforded by the Mosaic dis- 



THE FREENESS OF GRACE. 



131 



pensation. Our Saviour applied the ceremony, and 
the intention of it, to Himself and to the effusion of 
the Holy Spirit, promised, and to be given by Him. 
The sense of the Jews in the matter is plainly shown 
by the following passage of the Jewish Talmud : 
« Why is it called the place or house of drawing ? 
(for that was the term for this ceremony, or for the 
place where the water was taken up). Because from 
thence they draw the Holy Spirit, as it is written, 
'And ye shall draw waters with joy from the fount- 
ains of salvation.' " Probably, then, as they were 
bearing the golden pitcher, or had poured out its 
contents, rejoicingly, upon the sacrifice lying upon 
the altar, our Lord, whose habit it was to consecrate 
passing events and present circumstances to the 
great purposes of His instructions, " stood and cried, 
If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." 

" If any man thirst." How easy the terms ! How 
simple the condition ! "What an open and unob- 
structed path does our blessed Saviour set before us ! 
How direct, how short the road that leads from any 
and every perishing sinner to Himself! "If any 
man," or rather, if any one, for man, woman, and 
child, are had in view by Him who loved and died 
for all, who would have all to be saved and to come 
to the knowledge of the truth; "if any one thirst." 
By the keen want of the body, thirst, perhaps a keener 
want; one that gives more distress and is more 
urgent to be supplied than hunger — by the keen 
want of the body, Jesus pictures the anxious desire 
of the soul. If any one desire what I and only I can 
give; if any one, convinced that "the world can 



132 



SERMONS. 



never give the bliss for which he sighs," that it is 
not in things seen and temporal, to afford peace and 
satisfaction and true happiness, to one whom God 
has made to live forever : if any one, thus convinced, 
desire pardon for all his sins ; grace to help in every 
time of need ; a peace which the world can neither 
give nor take away ; a hope which shall not fade 
and die out as all mere earthly hopes, when sickness, 
sorrow and death are nigh; "if any man thirst," 
that is all I ask. He is prepared ; he is in the right 
state of mind and heart; he has no occasion to delay 
another hour. 

" Come, freely come, by sin opprest, 
On Jesus cast thy weighty load ; 

In Him thy refuge find, thy rest, 
Safe in the mercy of thy God ; 

Thy God's, thy Saviour glorious word ; 

hear, believe and bless the Lord." 

Observe Jesus says, "If any man thirst." He 
does not say that some one degree of thirst, alone, 
shall qualify a poor sinner for His mercy. There 
are various degrees of thirst, from that which does 
but occasion slight discomfort, to that which ago- 
nizes the dying. While it is true that if we thirst 
for what Jesus only can give us, for pardon and 
grace and holiness and salvation ; while it is true 
that if we thirsted for these precious blessings, with 
the intensest desire, it would be nothing more than 
would be proper and reasonable ; it is yet, blessed 
be God, certain beyond a doubt, that the thirst of 
many a sinner, who did at last come unto Jesus and 
wash away his sins in His most precious blood; that 



THE FREENESS OF GRACE, 



133 



his thirst, at first, was hardly more than a discomfort- 
ing conviction that there was no true peace and hap- 
piness away from Jesus; hardly more than a faint 
desire to be at peace with God ; to serve God, to 
enjoy the blessedness of God's people. 

Oh, He is very gracious ! Do you remember that 
beautiful, and, to us sinners, so encouraging pro- 
phetic description given of our Saviour, by the 
prophet Isaiah ? " A bruised reed shall He not break, 
and the smoking, or dimly burning flax, shall He 
not quench?" He will have a tender regard for 
afflicted consciences, and such as are bowed down 
under the burden of their sins; and when the least 
spark of grace appears, He will not quench it; but 
take the utmost care to keep it alive and improve 
it. " Jesus stood and cried, If any one thirst." 
Have you even the faintest desire to be a Christian? 
have you even the faintest desire for a better happi- 
ness than you have yet secured? have you the faint- 
est desire to go to your Father ? to be forgiven ? to 
lead a new life? to escape the wrath of God and 
enjoy His favor here and in the world to come? Is 
there such a faint desire in your heart, smouldering 
amidst those many other desires, which Satan and 
an evil world, and a sinful nature, have awakened ? 
Oh, be sure your compassionate Saviour regards it 
with the tenderest interest; the liveliest concern. 
It may be, if so you will, it may be the beginning 
of peace with God and your own conscience; the 
first brief step of progress towards the saving of your 
soul. It came from God. It would lead you to 
God. It may grow up into a thirst, which will 

12* 



1-34 



SERMONS. 



never be satisfied but with Jesus and the blessings 
of His salvation here. It may grow up into a thirst, 
which will be satisfied, when, in your Redeemer's 
presence in heaven, the Lamb that is in the midst 
of the throne shall feed you and shall lead you unto 
fountains of living waters. 

If there is one person present who feels, u Ido not 
believe I am a sinner; I do not believe that I need 
forgiveness; I do not believe that there is any dan- 
ger of my losing my soul; I do not feel the want of, 
or care for, anything that J esus Christ has to offer, 
for this world or the next; I am as happy now as I 
care to be, and have no wish for happiness after I 
die, that I am not, at this moment, as sure of as I 
desire to be;" if there is any person present who feels 
thus; the invitation of Jesus is not for him, "if any 
man thirst." But it is for every one else, whether 
he is yet only just desiring a peace and a hope which 
he knows he has not; or is longing for it and feeling, 
in his inmost heart, he must have it or perish. 

What a wide difference there was in the state of 
mind of the prodigal son, when he first began to 
open his eyes to his real state, and his positive wretch- 
edness; and when he stood in his father's presence 
confessing his sins, pleading for pardon and longing 
to be taken back to his father's favor, with a desire 
too strong for utterance ! And yet the first dawn of 
the feeling, that he was sinful and wretched, and 
must go home or he would perish; was just as cer- 
tain of his father's pitying love, as when it had grown 
strong enough to actually take him to his father's 
house. Oh, who can feel himself excluded; who need 



THE FKEENESS OF GRACE. 



135 



feel that he is not addressed, when he finds his Sa- 
viour heaping up words to declare the freeness and 
the comprehensiveness of His call ! Turn to the last 
page of your Bibles, almost to the last verse of God's 
blessed word; and you will find Jesus there, stand- 
ing and crying out, as He stood and cried in the last 
day. that great day of the feast — " The Spirit and the 
Bride," — and it is the Bride, the Church of Christ, 
which is speaking to you now, by the lips of the min- 
ister of Jesus — "the Spirit and the Bride say Come; 
and let him that heareth, say Come; and let him that 
is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him come * 
and take of the water of life freely." Oh, are you 
willing, simply willing, as lost and perishing sinners, 
to receive at Christ's hands as a free gift, pardon, 
salvation from sin and death and hell; and exaltation 
here and hereafter, to holiness and happiness and life 
eternal ? Have you any desire that you may not per- 
ish but have everlasting life ? Jesus says — they are 
His own words, we are only echoing them from His 
Divine and gracious lips, "If any one thirst." "If 
any one thirst, let him come unto me and drink." 

Christians, these words of Jesus are for us. Though 
we have come to Jesus, in penitence and faith, and 
been baptized in His name, and fed at His table, and 
been, it may be, years in His service; yet must we 
come to Him. again and again, "to drink:" must 
come daily; come habitually: for that special bless- 
ing which He here speaks of, " If any man thirst, let 
him come unto me and drink." "He that believeth 
on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly 
shall flow rivers of living water, but this spake He/' 



136 



SERMONS. 



adds St. John, "this spake He of the Holy Spirit, 
which they that believe on Him should receive." 
That is just what we want; what we always want; 
what we want more and more; and shall till we have 
gone to our everlasting rest, " the Spirit which they 
that believe on Him receive;" the Spirit, working in 
us both to will and to do; while we are working out 
our own salvation with fear and trembling; the 
Spirit to help our infirmities; to shed abroad the 
love of Christ in our hearts; to make intercession 
for us, by giving sincerity and earnestness and fervor 
to our prayers; in church; in our families; in our 
own chambers; the Spirit to make us desire and 
yearn for and untiringly pursue that holiness of heart 
and life without which no man shall see the Lord. 
We want the Spirit to make good to us in our own 
personal experience, that gracious promise of our 
God, "And the Lord shall guide thee continually, 
and satisfy thy soul in drought; and make fat thy 
bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden; and 
like a spring of water, whose waters fail not!" Why 
did Stephen live so holy and useful a life and die so 
peaceful and triumphant a death ? Because he was 
"full of the Holy Ghost." And if we would live the 
life of the righteous; watch and pray, and labor and 
love, and give and do good as becometh the children 
of light; if we would be prepared, when the Master 
shall call us, peacefully and joyfully to answer, "Even 
so come, Lord Jesus;" we must go unto Him and 
drink; we must continually ask the Father, in His 
name, "that we may daily increase in His Holy 
Spirit more and more, until we come unto His 



THE FREENESS OF GRACE. 



137 



everlasting kingdom." Then, indeed, rivers of living 
water shall flow out of us. We shall be such 
Christians as the world will feel it has reason to bless 
God for. The light of our good examples will so 
shine before men ; that they will see our good works, 
and glorify our Father which is in heaven. They 
will take knowledge of us that we have been with 
Jesus; and have learned of Him, and received of His 
Spirit; and when we shall die, there will be those 
behind us, who will bless our memories; who, to the 
praise of the glory of God's grace, will follow us as 
we have followed Christ; and meet us, at last, in 
heaven, to unite in its praises; to partake of its bliss ; 
to cast their crowns before the throne of Jesus; and 
unite in the new song, " to Him that loved us and 
gave Himself for us; and hath washed us from our 
sins in His own blood; and hath made us Kings and 
Priests unto God." 

And will you not all come unto Jesus, that you all 
may " drink?" He invites you all, and in Him there 
is an infinite sufficiency. St. John writes, "But if 
we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have 
fellowship one with another; and the blood of Jesus 
Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." Can 
there be a sinner whose case is not reached by such 
a provision? Can there be an unworthiness, which 
such a fountain for sin and uncleanness cannot wash 
away? If you are waiting to wash away your sins 
yourselves, by becoming better; by becoming sure 
that you will never go astray, if you should come to 
Jesus; that fountain can do you no good; for it is 
provided for those who are willing it should wash 



138 



SERMONS. 



them altogether. Jesus must do the whole work, 
must have the whole glory. He has said, " If I wash, 
thee not, thou hast no part or lot with me." Oh, 
perishing sinner, it is a delusion of an evil heart; or 
a temptation of Satan ; which would keep you back 
from Christ, till you feel fit to come to Him. It is a 
delusion, or a temptation, which, is causing you to 
deny yourself the saving efficacy of Christ's worthi- 
ness, till you are sure of your own. Did the prodi- 
gal son trust to some new and better arrangement of 
his rags, to help him to make sure of his father's 
forgiveness? Or did he go in his rags and his 
wretchedness and his ruin ? 

Dear hearer, you must come to this. You will 
never be pardoned and saved and get to heaven, un- 
less you give up from your hearts all dependence 
upon what you have done, or mean to do, and repose 
all your trust on what God, your Saviour, has done 
and suffered for you. You will never come to Christ, 
you will live on in your sins ; and every moment be 
in danger of dying in your sins, until you believe in 
the Lord Jesus Christ; until these words are a true 
expression of your feelings: 

"In my hand, no price I bring, 
Simply to Thy cross I cling. 
Thou must save, and Thou alone." 

And this is just what Jesus asks of you, that you 
may reap the benefits of His great salvation. Hear 
His own words. "And Jesus said unto them, I am 
the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never 
hunger and he thatbelieveth on me shall never thirst." 



THE FREENESS OF GRACE. 



Suppose you had gone up upon the roof of a house 
and falling had just been able to catch by the eaves, 
and were hanging suspended in the air, at so great a 
height that to fall must be certain destruction. That 
death grasp, which wasting strength is every mo- 
ment relaxing, is all the hope you have in yourself, 
and that hope cannot last long. But kind and anx- 
ious friends beneath, have made some sudden and 
sufficient arrangement, which will insure your per- 
fect safety, the moment you quit your hold on the 
eaves. You cannot look down to see what the 
saving arrangement is ; but you hear the voices of 
those who are as anxious for your safety as yourself; a 
mother's, a father's, a brother's, crying, "Let go and 
you are safe." If you believe them ; if you are will- 
ing to give up trusting to your failing hold, and to 
trust altogether to the contrivance for your safety ; 
you will relax your grasp, and, abandoning the idea 
of saving yourself, depend wholly for your salvation 
upon others. JSTow Jesus says, " Underneath are the 
everlasting arms." Are you willing to fall into them? 
Are you willing to quit your hold and hope upon 
everything else, to give up all idea of being your 
own Saviour; in any way; in any degree; and be- 
lieve with your heart in the Lord Jesus Christ? If 
so, say so in your hearts, and Jesus, who searcheth 
the heart, will instantly hear your decision. And 
then, if God should give you the opportunity, you 
can say so outwardly; by confessing Christ before 
men; by being baptized; confirmed; received to 
the Lord's table. So, with the blessed effects of 
securing forgiveness and salvation, you will have 



140 



SERMONS. 



come unto Jesus; you will have obeyed His call, 
which He has now addressed to you, "If any one 
thirst, let him come unto me and drink." 

After such a surrender of yourself to Him, you 
will, indeed, "drink of the waters of life." At peace 
with God, through Jesus Christ our Lord ; at peace 
with your own consciences ; at peace with all around 
you, you will find in the Saviour's service, a happi- 
ness, you never did and never can find anywhere 
else. And the longer you serve Him; and the more 
you love Him ; the greater will that happiness be. 
And when, at last, your day draws nigh to its close; 
and your eye can no longer recognize the dearest 
countenance, nor your ear the most familiar name, 
you will know Jesus ; and your soul will drink in 
from His presence and His care; and from the 
blessed assurance that you are going to be with 
Him forever, "the peace that passeth all under- 
standing," a "joy that no man taketh from you." 

Come to Him now, and to-day. Yes, before you 
turn away from this place of His presence, to that 
world which has in it so many engagements, cares, 
pleasures, to make you forget Jesus, and your own 
souls and your own salvation. Any Sunday may be 
to you, what that Sabbath was to the Jews ; the last 
day when Jesus' call shall be heard. Some soul that 
may be listening to Him now, may never listen to 
Him again. Remember it was Jesus who put be- 
fore us the picture of the man, counting upon the 
future, to whom He represents God as saying, " Thou 
fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." 
And Jesus is so urgent, because He would not lose 



THE FREENESS OF GRACE. 



141 



the fruit of His toil and tears and blood; because 
He would not that any one of you should perish, 
but that you all should have everlasting life — that 
life which He died to bring you ; and which is yours 
when you from your hearts say you will come to 
Him that you may have it forever ! 



13 



SERMON" IX. 



THE NECESSITY OF CHOICE. 

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you, this day, 
■whom ye will serve. — Joshua, xxiv. 15. 

What a suggestion! "if it seem evil unto you to 
serve the Lord!" Joshua himself, who spake these 
words, did not think so. He was as far as possible 
from supposing that it was evil to serve the Lord. 
He was about an hundred years old at that time, 
and had been trying what it was to serve God all 
his life long. To him, it seemed the most reasona- 
ble and delightful thing possible, to serve the Lord. 
He could not have been persuaded, for one instant, 
to think of doing otherwise. Pie said on that very 
occasion, that even if the whole nation should take 
the other course, it would not affect his. Those 
were brave words; words which did credit to his 
head and his heart; words which were honorable 
alike to God and to himself. " As for me and my 
house we will serve the Lord." It was a noble tes- 
timony from such a man, at such an age; that the 
ways of God are pleasantness and all His paths are 
peace. And yet it came into his mind, to say unto 
the assembled Israelites, "and if it seem evil unto 
you to serve the Lord." He threw out the idea; 
that possibly they might take this view of the 
(142) 



THE NECESSITY OF CHOICE. 



143 



matter; that all things considered, they might look 
upon it as a hardship to serve the Lord; "an evil 
thing" they had better avoid, if they possibly could. 

There can be no question, they often had acted as 
if they thought so. Joshua had lived among them; 
had known them intimately; had sustained most 
important relations to them, for a long course of 
years. And he could recall many an occasion, on 
which their words and their actions both declared, 
"we think it an evil thing to serve the Lord." He 
was only making a suggestion therefore, which, it 
was possible, they might then, or afterwards, act out. 
In their present mood of mind, indeed, they appear 
to have been shocked by the idea. " And the peo- 
ple answered, and said, God forbid, that we should 
forsake the Lord to serve other Gods." It was a 
solemn occasion which had called them together. 
All the tribes of Israel, with their elders and heads, 
judges and officers, had assembled at the call of 
Joshua; and that venerable man, conscious that he 
was going the way of all the earth, and anxious that 
an impressive transaction, at the close of his life, 
should add strength to the tie, which bound the 
Israelites to God's service; addressed them in a 
strain adapted to make them think and feel with 
regard to serving God as he did himself. 

" And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith 
the Lord God of Israel." He called upon them to 
listen to God's own brief and graphic sketch of His 
dealings towards their nation, through its whole his- 
tory down to that present time: and then added his 
own earnest exhortation: "E"ow therefore fear the 



144 



SERMONS. 



Lord; and serve Him in sincerity and in truth; and 
put away the Gods which your fathers served on the 
other side of the flood and in Egypt; and serve ye 
the Lord." Under the influence of this review and 
appeal; made through, and by their aged and vene- 
rated leader; it is probable the only thought and 
purpose just then, in their minds, was that which 
they afterwards, so almost passionately expressed; 
"nay but we will serve the Lord." It therefore 
grated harshly upon their ears; and did violence to 
their then predominant feeling when Joshua went 
on to say, "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the 
Lord; choose you, this day, whom ye will serve." 

He had not miscalculated the effect of these 
words. They drew from the people a prompt, earn- 
est and repeated declaration of their purpose to 
serve the Lord. So that Joshua had the opportunity 
of saying unto the people; " Ye are witnesses against 
yourselves that ye have chosen you the Lord to 
serve Him." Perhaps when Joshua should be 
dead; the recollection of this very solemn promise 
would be a great safeguard to the people. Their 
own consciences would appeal to them as witnesses 
against themselves; if amidst the temptations of 
the future, they should think of counting it "an 
evil thing to serve the Lord." Joshua did not de- 
sire, or design, or expect, to force them that day to a 
choice, sinful in the sight of God, and dangerous, per- 
haps absolutely ruinous to their own souls. He hoped 
and believed that when the case was put plainly 
before them, they would be of one mind and heart 
with himself ; that they would think and feel as he 



THE NECESSITY OF CHOICE. 



145 



did, with regard to the service of the Lord. It was 
by an appeal, not unlike this of Joshua; that our 
blessed Saviour Himself once drew from His dis- 
ciples, a confession of their faith; which it must 
have strengthened themselves to have made. It 
was at a time, when some who had been His disci- 
ples, went back, and walked no more with Him. 
" Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go 
away? Then Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to 
whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal 
life ; and we believe and art sure, that Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God.' 5 They were 
less in danger than before of goiug away, after hav- 
ing uttered such words. And the Israelites were 
more certain to think aright of God's service, from 
the influence and effect of Joshua's suggestion, "and 
if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose 
you this day whom ye will serve." It is no wonder 
that the people should have been shocked at having 
it supposed they could think it an evil thing to 
serve the Lord and be disposed to choose any other 
service. The alternatives presented to their minds 
were the service of the Lord God of Israel and the 
service of heathen deities, such as were worshipped 
by the idolatrous Assyrians and Egyptians. And 
when they thought over their national history, which 
afforded so many proofs of the existence, the wis- 
dom, the power, the holiness of God; the idea of 
serving any one but Him seemed in the highest 
degree, absurd and sinful. 

And so it was, and so it is. "An evil thing to 
serve the Lord"? Why the person who thinks so, 

13* 



146 



SERMONS. 



cannot have any proper conceptions of G-od, or of his 
own relations to God! His understanding must be 
darkened! His heart cannot be right! And yet 
what more common? "What more common than 
just such a way of thinking of God's service, as 
Joshua supposed the Israelites might be tempted to 
indulge? Is it an easy thing, my brethren, to per- 
suade you to serve the Lord? Already, in the cases 
of many of you, large portions of life have passed; 
and yet you have not begun to serve the Lord. You 
do not consider yourselves, and would not have 
others consider you, as actually committed to God's 
service. You feel at liberty to say things, and to do 
things which you would not feel at liberty to say 
and to do, if you had chosen " the Lord to serve 
Him." What you would consider wrong and incon- 
sistent in Christians; that is, people who acknowl- 
edge themselves bound to serve the Lord; and pro- 
fess that they are endeavoring to do so : what you 
would consider wrong and inconsistent in Chris- 
tians; you do not consider wrong and inconsistent in 
yourselves. This proves that you do not consider 
yourselves as actually bound to serve the Lord, and 
as engaged in trying to do so. 

Perhaps you are hardly willing to suppose, or to 
have it supposed, that you pay no respect at all to 
the will of the Lord. And yet what can that re- 
spect amount to, which presumes to distinguish be- 
tween commands proceeding from the same sove- 
reign authority and of the same obligation, which 
says, this I will obey — that I will disobey; thus far 
will I go in serving the Lord, but I will go no fur- 



THE NECESSITY OF CHOICE. 



147 



ther ? You act, my brethren, as if the God whom 
to u would fain suppose you do in some degree serve, 
was a different being from the God of Christianity. 
As if Christians and you had different Lords : that 
He who bids you render unto all their dues, was one 
Being; and He another and a different Being who 
says, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be 
saved." Perhaps you pride yourself, that you do 
render unto all their dues ; that so far at least you 
serve the Lord. Yet even this is not true of any 
one, but the real Christian ; for you owe to your fel- 
low-beings an example, which, if they should follow, 
would lead them to heaven, as certainly as you owe 
to your neighbor the money you have borrowed of 
him. But you make no account whatever of this 
sort of debt; which yet is as real and important as 
any other you owe; and the neglect of which, will 
involve you in far more serious and fatal and lasting 
consequences than the neglect of any other. But 
you make no account of this sort of debt. You 
consider yourself as rendering unto all their dues; 
as so far serving the Lord ; because in a general way, 
in your intercourse and dealings with your fellow- 
men, you are upright aud honest. 

But when the same God who bids you to be just 
in all your dealings, lays His injunction on you to 
believe in His only begotten Sou; to be baptized 
in His name; to consider yourself, and to act as if 
you considered yourself on His side, in this world 
that lieth in wickedness, do you obey — do you 
serve the Lord then ? Do you not meet His author- 
ity with a real, if not a studied neglect; and a reso- 



148 



SERMONS. 



lute and persevering refusal ? "What would you think 
of a person in your employ, who should undertake 
to discriminate between your equally lawful and 
proper commands; and who should go just as far in 
obeying as he chose, and no further? Would you 
not say he was making his own will, not yours, the 
law of his conduct? In some things, he did as you 
directed; of course, not because you directed; for, 
if that had been the governing consideration, he 
would have followed your equally obligatory direc- 
tions throughout. But in some things he did as you 
directed, because he chose to do so; and for no other 
or better reason. You would be right in saying, 
that he made his own will not yours, the rule of his 
conduct. Now that is just what God says, and 
thinks, of every man and woman who does uot, and 
will not believe and obey the Gospel; who does not 
and will not become a Christian. And yet such 
persons think they may consider themselves as serv- 
ing the Lord to a certain extent; because some 
things which God has been pleased to command, 
they see tit to obey : while just as many other and 
more important things, commanded by the Lord, 
they see fit to disobey. 

The truth is, no person has any right to say he is 
serving the Lord, until he is willing to say, without 
any qualification, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to 
do? If he is not ready to obey God altogether, he 
is not ready to obey God at all ; and has no right to 
consider that he is obeying God at all. A willing- 
ness to obey altogether, in every respect in which it 
has pleased God to make known His will, is of the 



THE NECESSITY OF CHOICE. 



149 



very essence of obedience, and there can be nothing 
God will consider obedience without it. For as the 
Apostle St. James writes, ''Whosoever shall keep 
the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is 
guilty of all. For He that said, Do not commit 
adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now, if thou com- 
mit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a 
transgressor of the law." An intentionally and wil- 
fully partial obedience is no obedience at all. He 
is not serving the Lord, who presumes to say, thus 
far will I go, and no further. He has no real rev- 
erence for God's authority; no true regard for God's 
will; or he would say, I will go just as far as Al- 
mighty God would have me to go; whatever He 
commands, it is my desire and intention to obey. 

Have you been brought to this point yet? If 
not, you cannot have even begun to serve the Lord. 
And has nothing been done to bring you to this 
point? Has nothing been done fully to persuade 
you to serve the Lord? Has God had no meaning in 
all the events of His providence which have befallen 
you as you have passed through life ? Has he not 
actually meant to awake in you the determination, 
" we will serve the Lord?" "With the Bible in your 
hands, or fully within your reach all through your 
lives; with the ministry of Christ instructing and 
appealing to you, publicly and privately; who of 
you can say, nothing has been done to induce and 
persuade me to serve the Lord ? And if all has been 
done in vain, as thus far all has been, is it not clear, 
you must think it an evil thing to serve the Lord ? 
You have put off doing so; just as if you did think 



150 



SERMONS. 



it an evil thing; just as if you thought there could 
be no pleasure, no happiness, no real enjoyment in 
serving the Lord. 

You think you must come to it at last, but you 
look upon it, as a sort of unpleasant necessity, which 
is best postponed, as long as it safely can be. If 
those who are bound to love you aud to try to please 
you, thought and felt with regard to you, as you 
have thought and felt with regard to that Being, 
whom you are bound to love and try to please; 
would you be satisfied ? Satisfied ! Why you would 
feel that a grievous injury had been done you ; that 
you had been sinned against almost unpardonably ! 
And yet you have esteemed it an evil thing to serve 
the Lord who made you; who has been your daily 
and ceaseless benefactor, all your life long; who even 
died in anguish, that your sins might be forgiven, 
and your soul might be saved. You have esteemed 
it an evil thing to serve Him; or what is just as bad, 
or even worse, you have not thought enough about 
Him, to have any opinion as to whether it was an evil 
thing to serve Him or not. 

My brethren, you must look at facts as they are, 
either now, or hereafter; and it is immeasurably 
better you should do so now. God will make you 
understand, if you will not bestow sufficient thought 
on the subject to understand it now. God will make 
you understand, that you have looked upon it as an 
evil thing to serve Him, and that so regarding His 
service, was a grievous and a deadly sin: something 
to be thoroughly ashamed of; something to be deeply 
sorry for ; something which cannot be forgiven, but 



THE NECESSITY OF CHOICE. 



151 



only, if at all, for His sake, whose blood cleanseth 
from all sin. "An evil thing to serve the Lord!" 
The folly and wickedness of such a thought, and of 
acting as if you thought so, are great indeed ! Who 
can at all befriend you, but that Lord in whose ser- 
vice you will not engage ? He allows you to go on 
as if you were not at all dependent upon Him for 
anything; when in fact, you are dependent upon 
Him, for everything. And this is allowed that you 
may be put upon a real trial; that you may be put to 
the test as you could not be, if you were all the while 
compelled to remember your dependence upon God. 
He has mercifully provided for the forgiveness of 
your sins, and for your being enabled to know how 
to please Him. To reduce that knowledge to prac- 
tice, He has so ordered His commands and require- 
ments that your true interests and your real happi- 
ness, both for this world and the next, are bound up 
in obeying them. 

It seems strange; incomprehensible indeed, except 
as we remember that the heart is deceitful above all 
things and desperately wicked; that any one should 
esteem it "an evil thing -to serve the Lord." It is 
foolish; it is unnatural; it is ungrateful! And yet 
so long as it seems "an evil thing," it is out of the 
question, you should think of engaging in it. You 
will not and you cannot. Unless there be first the 
willing mind; which will not be, so long as it is 
thought "an evil thing to serve the Lord:" unless 
there be first a willing mind, God cannot be served 
and will not be served by any one of you. "And if 
it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord; choose you, 



152 



SERMONS. 



this day, whom you will serve." What is your al- 
ternative ? If you do not and will not serve the Lord, 
whom must you serve? There are only two Beings 
in whose service it is possible you should engage. 
The Lord who made you, and redeemed you; and 
that other being of whom the word of God speaks, 
when it says, " Whosoever committeth sin is of the 
devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning: for 
this purpose was the Son of God manifested that He 
might destroy the works of the devil. 5 ' He disre- 
gards the will of God; and that is all, and the worst 
you can say of him. If you disregard the will of 
God; then you are serving him and not the Lord. 
You are on his side ; and not on God's side. A dis- 
regard of the will of God, although it be coupled 
with a professed respect for it, identifies the indi- 
vidual with him, whose perfect and total disregard 
of God's will, makes him the incurably wicked 
being that he is. 

You must take sides. There is no avoiding that, 
and the person who will not think about God's call 
and the Saviour's claims at all, does so just as effect- 
ually as the person who actually decides, I will not 
regard God's call; I will not meet the Saviour's 
claims; I will not, mortal and sinful being though I 
am, confess and own my Saviour before men. There 
is such a thing as acting I will not, as well as saying 
I will not; and the action is quite as significant as 
the words. I will not be a Christian : I will not serve 
the Lord who bought me; may, to God's eye, be as 
legible in the life, as if it were actually written with 
the pen, or graven on the rock. 



THE NECESSITY OF CHOICE. 



153 



It was an animating spectacle, that whole assem- 
bly resolving at once and on the spot, "We will serve 
the Lord." No doubt, in the case of many of them, 
this amounted only to saying, we will go on doing 
what we have all along been doing. We have been 
serving the Lord, and we mean to continue serving 
the Lord. But others of them had not been, and 
were not then doing so; and when they so promptly 
united in the common determination we will serve 
the Lord, it was the beginning of their religious life. 
They chose them, that day whom they would serve, 
and their choice was that they would serve the Lord. 
They felt there must be a beginning, and why not 
then ; why not that very day ? Wliy not make a favor- 
able response at once to the appeal of the minister 
of God? and not suffer even another sun to go down 
upon them yet unreconciled to God ; yet undecided 
to serve Him. There was no need of any delay. 
There could be no good reason for any delay : but the 
weightiest and most solemn considerations that could 
possibly be presented to the human mind urged them 
to make their choice; and to make it that very day. 

And the same thing is just as true in your cases, as 
it was in theirs. This day, though there was nothing 
special about it; though it may not appear more par- 
ticularly appropriate as a time for choosing God's 
service, than any other days that have gone before it; 
yet affords reasons of real and paramount import- 
ance why you should say; "we will serve the Lord." 
In fact, all the reasons which can appeal ; and from 
the gospel of Christ do appeal to sinful, accountable, 
dying beings; gather new force and solemnity as 

14 



154 



SERMONS. 



each succeeding day is bringing on the close of pio 
bation; the close of that season of visitation, in 
which alone it is possible to attend to the things be- 
longing to your everlasting peace. The lapse of a 
week does not seem much to shorten life, or to en- 
danger much the prospect of your seeking the Lord 
while He may be found, and choosing His service. 
But week is added to week, and one after another 
glides by, and still the great question of life has not 
been decided; the great business of life has not so 
much as been entered upon. And soon the last week ; 
the last day of life will come, and find you yet all 
unprepared to meet your Master and Judge. " Choose 
ye therefore this day whom ye will serve. " 



SERMON X. 



THE SUFFICIENCY OF GRACE. 

Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water 
shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I 
shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give 
him, shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting 
life.— St. John, iv. 13. 

Forty miles northward from Jerusalem is a city, 
called in Scripture Sychar, but now named Nablous. 
Close by that city is a well, which more than eigh- 
teen centuries ago, was the scene of an interview 
between our Saviour, and a woman of Samaria; dur- 
ing which the conversation occurred, in which the 
words of the text were spoken. That well, even in 
our Saviour's day, was an antiquity of the country. 
It was known as Jacob's well, and was in the parcel of 
ground^ which that patriarch gave to his son Joseph. 
Many very sacred associations were, even then, con- 
nected with it, and with its immediate vicinity. 
There the renowned forefather of the Jewish race, 
Abraham, had made his first resting-place on enter- 
ing the land of Canaan. That parcel of ground had 
been bequeathed by dying Jacob to his son Joseph; 
and there the embalmed remains of Joseph had been 
buried, ages after his death. 

The woman with whom our Lord conversed, sur- 

(155) 



156 



SERMONS. 



prised at what He had said to her; "If thou knewest 
the gift of God and who it is that saith give me to 
drink, thou wouldst have asked of Him and He 
would have given thee living water," replied, "Art 
Thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us 
the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children 
and his cattle?" Commenting on the expression — 
"and Jacob's well was there, " a devout and learned 
author remarks — "and there it is unmistakably to 
this day : a deep well, dug as was customary in the 
patriarchal age, in the place of sojourn ; and which 
tradition has always pointed out as the well of the 
patriarch Jacob. It is one of the most interesting 
objects in the Holy Land : admitting no doubt as to 
its identity with the spot which St. John describes. 
It is exactly in the road which a traveller would take, 
in passing from Judea into Galilee ; the journey our 
Lord was making on the occasion in question. It is 
not far from Sychar; and above all, it is the only 
place in the neighborhood which fulfils the require- 
ments of the Scripture record. This it does entirely, 
beiog very deep, while all the other wells and springs 
lie near the surface; and the water of the larger por- 
tion can be reached even with the hand. The water, 
from its depth, is always exceedingly cool: on which 
account it is, that persons are accustomed to visit it, 
in preference to other springs, nearer the city. Trav- 
ellers have found this well, to be of the depth of an 
hundred and five feet, and to this day, it contains 
ten or fifteen feet of living water, that is water from 
the spring, as opposed to stagnant water." 

It was about six o'clock in the evening of one of 



THE SUFFICIENCY OF GRACE. 157 

the days of our blessed Saviour's life upon earth, 
that on a journey with his disciples, our Lord being 
wearied, sat on this well. His disciples went away 
to the neighboring city to buy food. In the interval 
of their absence, there cometh a woman of Samaria 
to draw water. "How striking a picture,*' one well 
remarks, "is here set before us ! He to whom Jacob 
had erected his altar; and whom the patriarch Jacob 
himself foreshadowed, sits down wearied on Jacob's 
well," He, God manifest in the flesh, who came into 
the world, that the world through Him might be 
saved. And then, and there was to be an instance 
of that coming unto Him, which, essentially is in- 
dispensable to our salvation. " There cometh a 
woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto 
her, Give Me to drink. Then said the woman of Sa- 
maria unto Him; how is it that thou being a Jew 
askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria ? 
For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." 
They looked upon them as corrupters of the true 
religion, and enemies of the chosen people. Jesus 
answered and said unto her, " If thou knewest the 
gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee, give 
Me to drink: thou wouldst have asked of Him and 
He would have given thee living water. The woman 
saith unto Him, Sir, Thou hast nothing to draw with, 
and the well is deep;" (observe the incidental infor- 
mation, which the observations of modern travellers, 
have so strikingly exemplified ;) from whence then 
hast Thou that living water? Art Thou greater than 
our father Jacob, which gave us the well and drank 
thereof himself, and his children and his cattle ? 

14* 



158 



SERMONS. 



"Jesus answered and said unto her, whosoever drink- 
eth of this water shall thirst again : but whosoever 
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never 
thirst; but the water that I shall give him, shall be in 
him, a well of water, springing up into everlasting 
life." That water could quench thirst; but thirst 
would come again. The parched lip, every day, for 
a long life, might come to that well, and find relief 
and refreshment there. But how when that life 
should be sealed in death ? The most to be hoped 
for, from that well, was therefore, but bodily and 
temporal benefit. Generation after generation had 
drawn from its clear, cool depth. But generation 
after generation, enjoying its blessings, during their 
mortal lives, had been brought into the dust of death ; 
but there, its uses and capabilities were, for them, for- 
ever at an end. The deepest, most real, most lasting 
wants of their nature, it never did, never could sup- 
ply. After death, they would be conscious of wants, 
which had as really existed before, but which they 
had not been sensible of. 

"What an impressive comment on the insufficiency 
of this water is furnished in that agonizing appeal 
of the lost soul of the rich man! — "Father Abra- 
ham, send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his 
finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tor- 
mented in this flame." That which had comforted, 
and refreshed, and at times, it may be, been his de- 
light, while he was yet alive, could be nothing to 
him, could do nothing for him, after he was dead. 
And the woman of Samaria would have found it so, 
had she lived and died in her sins; had she not 



THE SUFFICIENCY OF GRACE. 



159 



come unto Christ; had only the water of that well 
quenched her bodily and temporal thirst. She had 
a soul as well as a body: an endless life to live in 
the world to come, as well as a life of a few short 
years in this world. And the necessities of that 
soul and of that endless life, not even the living 
water of the deep well of her father Jacob could 
supply. A draught of "this water" might quench 
her thirst, but could not pacify an enlightened and 
awakened conscience, might refresh the wearied 
body, but could do nothing for the soul bowed down 
by the burden of its sins ; might cleanse outwardly, 
but could not reach and cleanse the heart. 

''Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst 
again." It is the declaration of Him who knew 
what is in man; and it speaks the same lesson to us 
to-day, that it spoke to the woman of Samaria, more 
than eighteen hundred years ago. If you make a 
well of your domestic joys; of 3'our fortune, hon- 
estly or dishonestly acquired ; of the higher pleas- 
ures of taste and intellect ; or of the lower gratifi- 
cations of sense; you will thirst -again. Nothing 
earthly was ever intended to satisfy and make you 
happy — nothing earthly can. You have real, en- 
during, eternal necessities which you do not take 
the first step towards providing for, by any pursuit; 
by any possessions which are seen and temporal. 
You wrong your own souls ; you will ruin them 
eternally, if you act upon such a supposition. 

Place yourself, in imagination, where you will 
inevitably one day be, in fact, at the hour of death. 
If you are an irreligious man, or an irreligious wo- 



160 



SERMONS. 



man — I mean, not a Christian — I ask you, is there 
anything you now have or hope for, which will be 
everything to you then ? "Whatever may have been 
your experience of life, even if it have had no be- 
reavements, no sorrows, no losses, no disappoint- 
ments; even though, so to speak, you may have 
drunk of a deep well of all earthly blessings and 
success; will you not thirst then? Will you not 
feel, there is something I need ; something I have 
not, as I look forward to eternity, and anticipate the 
time when arraigned before the Judgment-seat of 
Christ, I shall give an account of myself to God ? 
Thirst ! and no water to quench it, what terrible 
sufferings does it occasion ! The soul can suffer 
worse than the body; and if it have a sense of neces- 
sities, for which it has not, and never can have supply ; 
and that is the doom of every impenitent, unbeliev- 
ing one ; its everlasting misery is as certain as its 
immortality. 

But who will write such a sentence against him- 
self; when the Saviour who loved him and gave 
Himself for him, says, "but whosoever drinketh of 
the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, 
but the water that I shall give him, shall be in him 
a well of water springing up into everlasting life!" 
"Would you know what our Lord means by this water 
He would give ? " This spake He of the Spirit, 
which they that believed on Him should receive. " 
And they did receive it. Ten days after the Saviour's 
ascension into heaven, God the Holy Ghost came 
down from heaven. Oh ! that first Whitsunday, 
when He inspired the apostles to preach in divers 



THE SUFFICIENCY OF GRACE. 



161 



languages the wonderful works of God ! Then the 
Spirit of truth was sent into every believing heart, to 
be a well of water, springing up into everlasting life. 
He was so, on that day to about three thousand 
souls ; whose peace was, that day, made with God, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Working in them, 
to will and to do, of His good pleasure, without 
touching the freedom of their wills; He brought 
them to repentance; to faith in Jesus; to holy love 
and holy hope. Yea, He took up His abode in them 
— those who gladly received the word and were bap- 
tized; and they became, in the language of God's 
word, Temples of the Holy Ghost. He was in them 
a well of water springing up to strengthen and re- 
fresh them, under the temptations; amidst the cares 
and trials of life. He was in them, graciously keep- 
ing alive and strengthening their faith in Jesus; 
confirming them in all their good purposes ; and 
enabling them to bring those purposes to good 
effect; disposing and assisting them to pray sin- 
cerely and fervently; to watch against the tempta- 
tions of the world, the flesh, and the devil ; to give 
cheerfully and thankfully ; to labor for Christ and 
His kingdom untiringly. He was in them a well of 
water springing up into everlasting life, making 
them a comfort and blessing to all around them ; and 
giving them, finally, the peace and consolation and 
blessed hopes of the death of the righteous, and an 
end like His. 

And what He was in them, He has been ever 
since, in every one who has believed in the Lord 
Jesus Christ; and lived the life and died the death 



182 



SERMONS. 



of the righteous. What the Holy Spirit was in 
every one of the three thousand converts of the day 
of Pentecost; He is to-day, in every one, here pres- 
ent, who is a Christian not in name only but in deed 
and in truth. That thoughtfulness; that sorrow for 
sin; that desire for pardon and peace; that willing- 
ness to confess Jesus, as Lord and Master; that se- 
cret praying and studying God's blessed word; that 
perseverance in a sober, righteous and godly life; 
that peace and comfort; and it may be, at times, 
that joy in the privileges, pleasures, and prospects of 
the Christian life; that readiness to give and gladness 
to distribute; that honest and earnest desire to do 
good in the world; to be at work for Christ; all that 
was the upspringing of that well of water in the 
Christian. It is the presence in his soul ; the blessed 
influences, gentle but effective as the breath of 
Spring over nature, of God the Holy Spirit. It is 
the water Christ has given. It is a divine and gra- 
cious Saviour's gift. We never could have had it 
but for Him. Never — had not He who was rich, for 
our sakes become poor. Had not He been made 
man for us, and obeyed the law we had broken, and 
suffered the penalty our sins deserved. Had not He 
gone up into heaven there to appear in the presence 
of God for us ! It is the gift of God, through Jesus 
Christ our Lord; that Holy Spirit which draws us to 
the Cross of Christ, and keeps us there; and will not 
leave us nor forsake us; unless we grieve or drive 
Him away; till we shall lie down in our graves in 
hope of a joyful resurrection. 

Then, Christian, grieve not the Holy Spirit of 



THE SUFFICIENCY OF GRACE. 



163 



God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemp- 
tion. Say nothing, think nothing ; have no desires, or 
feelings, or plans, or purposes, which you have reason 
to fear, must grieve so divine a guest. It is possible, 
you should become wells without water; that the 
good Spirit of God, should go away from hearts that 
were not careful to desire and secure His continual 
presence and influence. You remember what a 
prayer David offered up, as he thought of the sins 
whereby he had done despite unto the Spirit of 
Grace; and trembled lest the worst consequences 
should ensue. "Cast me not away from Thy pres- 
ence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Oh ! 
give me the comfort of Thy help again and stablish 
me, with Thy free Spirit." But, as many as are led 
by the Spirit of God, they are the children of God ; 
and He will lead them every day all their journey 
through. Their consciences will become more and 
more tender; their affections more and more set on 
things above; their energies more and more enlisted 
in the holy purpose of being and of doing good. 
That prayer will be fulfilled which the Bishop offers 
up, when in confirmation, he lays his hands upon the 
heads of those who really desire the presence and 
influence of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. "De- 
fend, O Lord ! this Thy servant with Thy heavenly 
grace; that he may continue Thine forever, and daily 
increase in Thy Holy Spirit, more and more until he 
shall come unto Thine everlasting kingdom." 

My brethren, is there any one of you, who would 
make his heart so hard; that this well of water, 
springing up into everlasting life, cannot be in him ? 



164 



SERMONS. 



Would you trample down the soil of your heart so 
hard by worldly thoughts, and unholy purposes, and 
wicked habits of speech and feeliug and action, that, 
that well can never be dug there ? That Jesus can- 
not and will not give uuto you that living water, 
which alone can quench your thirst, and make your 
soul, peaceful, happy, joyful? You may do this. It 
is your responsibility, whether you will or no. You 
can pursue a course of life, which shall have just as 
inevitable a tendency to harden your heart; as the 
hard toil of the day laborer has to harden his hands. 
If you will swear, and drink, and deceive, and be 
dishonest : if you will give yourself no pains to draw 
your minds and hearts towards what concerns your 
souls, your Saviour, your salvation: if you will suffer 
time to roll away; sensible all the while, that you are 
not prepared to meet your God : willing to confess 
you are not; and yet without any concern or effort 
to bring about a different state of things; the Spirit 
will not come unto you and make his abode with you. 
Hear what your Saviour Himself has said. " J esus 
answered and said, if a man love me, he will keep 
my words, and my Father will love him, and we will 
come unto him and make our abode with him." 

Are you keeping Christ's words ? Are you willing 
to do so? It is the indispensable condition of His 
presence; the indispensable condition of a blessing 
without which you can never meet God in peace; 
never can join the glorious company of heaven. Are 
you then keeping Christ's word? Are you willing to 
do so? When He says, Repent; when He says, 
Break off your sins by righteousness : when He says, 



THE SUFFICIENCY OF GRACE. 



165 



Look unto me and be ye saved : when He says, Con- 
fess me before men, and live the life your own con- 
sciences, enlightened by My word, teach you, that 
you ought to live. Are you keeping Christ's word? 
Are you willing to do so ? Will you decide to-day, 
that you will begin, if hitherto you have neglected 
and refused? Will you go away from God's house, 
determined, the Lord being your helper, that you 
will begin, at once, to heed your Saviour and care for 
your soul? That you will live with your eye upon 
that coming life, for which all of this is but too short 
a season of preparation ? Answer as you would now, 
if the Searcher of hearts were visibly present to your 
sense. Answer, while it it is called to-day, lest the 
time of your probation be over, ere you have indeed 
drank of that water which springeth up into ever- 
lasting life. 



15 



SERMON XI. 



THE NECESSITY OF FAITH. 

Jesus said unto him, if thou canst believe. All things are possible 
to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child 
cried out, and said, with tears, Lord, I believe ; help Thou mine 
unbelief. — St. Mark, ix. 23, 24. 

"It would be a mercy if the child should die;" we 
may well suppose, was often said by those who knew 
the condition of this wretched boy. He was not, as 
it is commonly expressed, the victim of bodily dis- 
ease, but from his earliest years had been possessed 
by an evil spirit. The father's account of the case 
was, "Master I have brought unto Thee, my son 
which hath a dumb spirit; and wheresoever he taketh 
him he teareth him, and he foameth and gnasheth 
with his teeth, and pineth away : And oft-times it 
hath cast him into the fire and into the waters to 
destroy him." Happily, by God's mercy, we know 
little or nothing, in our day of such frightful mani- 
festations of demoniacal influence. They were per- 
mitted for wise reasons; some of which are very 
obvious, when He was upon earth of whom it is writ- 
ten, "For this purpose was the Son of God mani- 
fested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." 
The enemy was permitted, so to speak, to come forth 
from his ambush ; that his existence and malignity 
(166) 



THE NECESSITY OF FAITH. 



167 



might plainly appear; and the power of Christ to 
have victory and to triumph over him, be clearly 
shown. We should have felt the want of those re- 
cords of demoniacal possessions, which the word of 
God contains ; and which a shallow and unreflecting 
skepticism has often made the subjects of cavil. We 
should have felt the want of just such records, had 
we been called upon to believe, without the aid they 
furnish to our faith, such declarations as these, " Your 
adversary the devil goeth about as a roaring lion, 
seeking whom he may devour." "For we wrestle 
not against flesh and blood, but against principali- 
ties; against powers; against the rulers of the dark- 
ness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in 
high places." It is a help to our belief that we have 
so dread an enemy ; and to our faith in Him through 
whom alone we can overcome. 

A painful experience had this father had, of the 
power and malice of an unclean spirit. It had in- 
vaded the sanctity of his home, and had, virtually, 
robbed him of his child ; for that child's life had 
thus far been little else than a living death. 'Not for 
His own information ; but to bring out for the bene- 
fit of the beholders, the facts of this striking case, 
and to attract attention to what would follow, our 
Lord asks, "How long is it ago, since this came 
unto him ? and he said, of a child. And oft-times it 
hath cast him into the fire and into the waters to 
destroy him : but if Thou canst do anything, have 
compassion on us and help us. Jesus said unto him, 
if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him 
that belie veth." 



168 



SERMONS. 



Doubtless when the afflicted father made his ap- 
plication, he felt, "it does not at all depend upon 
me, whether my child shall be relieved." He had 
no thought, that the decision of the question in 
which he was so deeply interested, was at all in his 
own hands. When he had brought his son to Jesus, 
and had said, " if Thou canst do anything have 
compassion upon us and help us;" he supposed he 
had gone as far; and had done as much as he could ; 
and that it only remained for our Lord to say whether 
He would grant the petition and effect the cure. But 
he was at once taught a different lesson. To his sur- 
prise, he found that the question of his child's cure 
was in his own hands ; that it was for himself, and 
not for Christ to say, whether the evil spirit should 
be cast out. His faith, and not Christ's willingness 
or Christ's power, was to decide how it should 
be. "If thou canst believe." That was the point. 
Everything hinged upon that; whether Christ would 
favorably answer his prayer ; whether Christ would 
exert His power; whether the demon should be cast 
out; whether the boy should be saved. "If thou 
canst believe." The decision is for you to make, not 
for Me. The doubt is on your side, not on Mine. 
It is not for you to ask, "if Thou canst do anything," 
but for Me to say, "if thou canst believe." 

My brethren, it must have been possible for that 
man to believe — to believe as it was necessary he 
should ; in order that Christ might do what was 
needed. It must have been possible for that man 
thus to believe, or our Lord would not thus de- 
cidedly have placed the responsibility upon him. It 



THE NECESSITY OF FAITH. 169 

would have been mocking him ; sporting with his 
distress to have said, "if thou canst believe," when 
in no sense and in no way was it in his power to 
believe. That is plain. And yet whatever divine 
assistance is necessary for any sinner that he may 
believe, was just as necessary for that man. It was 
no more possible for him to have faith in Christ, 
independently of the help of God's Holy Spirit, 
than it is for me or for you. And yet so is that help 
afforded, that a sinner's unbelief is his own offence 
and fault; and his saving faith, while in a true sense 
the gift of God, is, in an equally true sense, a dis- 
charge of his own personal responsibility. This lies 
on the very surface of the narrative before us. It 
is indissolubly bound up in our Lord's words, " if 
thou canst believe." If that child had not been 
cured, when Christ was ready and able and willing 
to cure him, whose fault would it have been? Where 
would the blame have rested ? Nowhere else than 
upon the father's want of faith. The father would 
it have been who had stood in the light of his own 
child. 

Sow, my brethren, this same Jesus says to each 
one of us these same words, " if thou canst believe." 
All depends upon this, whether we shall become His 
disciples ; whether His blood shall cleanse us from 
all sin ; whether we shall have power and strength 
to have victory and to triumph against the devil, the 
world, and the flesh; whether in the hour of death, 
and in the day of judgment, we shall enjoy the com- 
fort, the support, the hopes, the blessings which our 
Lord came into the world to secure for lost sinners. 

15* 



170 



SERMONS. 



All depends upon this, " if thou canst believe." Our 
imaginings may place the responsibility where they 
will. Our Lord lays it directly on ourselves. Our 
immortal souls — nay, our whole nature, body and 
soul — may fall under the eternal tyranny of Satan, 
as that poor child was under the temporary power 
of a demon. He who would fain say, at the last, 
" Come ye blessed of my Father," may be con- 
strained to say, " Depart ye cursed into everlasting 
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." 

What then ? Will not the Judge of all the earth 
have done right? Will the party responsible for 
this sentence be, not he upon whom it shall have 
been pronounced, but God, the Father, the Son, the 
Holy Ghost? Brethren, if you live and die without 
the faith that saves the soul; that makes available 
to pardon and salvation, the atoning sacrifice of the 
cross ; the result will be as much your own as that 
uncured boy would have been the fault of a faithless 
father. It is impossible to mistake the teaching of 
the narrative. It goes with a startling directness to 
this very point; and to every one of you who is at 
this moment without hope in Christ; with no well- 
grounded assurance of pardon and salvation; it says, 
to make you feel your own burden, and to draw you 
to Him who is able to save to the uttermost all who 
come unto God by Him, "if thou canst believe." 
Everything was promised in our Lord's assurance, 
"All things are possible to him that believeth." It 
would have been true to say to that father, thy faith 
hath cast out the demon — thy faith hath saved thy 
son. 



THE NECESSITY OF FAITH. 



171 



You remember how constantly our Lord referred 
all the great results of His power to human faith, 
and laid the blame of the failure of such results 
upon the want of it. In one place it is written, 
"And He did not many mighty works there because 
of their unbelief;" as though actually their want of 
faith had tied the hands of His Divine power. Were 
His disciples on the tempest-tossed lake, affrighted, 
almost in despair; when they might have possessed 
their souls in peace? The grand deficiency, which 
took away their sense of security, and made the very 
presence of an Almighty Saviour, nothing to them, 
was here, "why are ye fearful, ye of little faith?" 
When that penitent woman, needing and asking of 
Christ no temporal blessing, stood at His feet behind 
Him, weeping, and "began to wash His feet with 
tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, 
and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the oint- 
ment," and received the great blessing, in the Mas- 
ter's words, "thy sins are forgiven," the compas- 
sionate Redeemer said to the woman, "Thy faith 
hath saved thee, go in peace." And the inspired 
narratives are full of the blessed manifestations of 
the power of faith ; how they that believed obtained 
all, and more than all they asked of the power and 
mercy of the Lord. "All things are possible to 
him that believeth." 

'Not that a person can do whatever he believes he 
can do, or have whatever he believes he can have ; 
that is not the idea; but that faith, faith in the Lord 
J esus Christ — our God and Saviour, puts at the sin- 
ner's command all that His power, love, and mercy 



172 



SERMONS. 



can accomplish; makes sure to him, as it qualifies 
him to receive and enjoy, all that He, who is mighty 
to save, has, by His humiliation and sacrifice and 
death, procured for us. How can I befriend the 
man who will not believe in me as his friend ; or 
trust me as such ? But let him believe in me, and, 
if I am willing, my resources may be his resources ; 
and whatever I can do, it may be* true to say, he can 
accomplish. His faith, as it were, puts me in his 
place, and makes him good for whatever I am good 
for. So as regards " the Friend that sticketh closer 
than a brother." By the merits and death of God's 
dear Son, and through faith in His blood, we may 
obtain remission of our sins and all other benefits of 
His passion. Just as certainly as the faith of that 
afflicted father did secure, through the exercise of 
Christ's power, the salvation of his child; just so 
certainly will our faith seeure through Christ our 
pardon and salvation. "He that believeth on the 
Son hath everlasting life." He has a Friend who can 
shelter him from all accusation and all condemna- 
tion ; who can guide him by His counsel and after 
that receive him into glory. 

ISTot less instructive than touching was the reply of 
the father to our Saviour's words, "And straight- 
way the father of the child cried out and said with 
tears, Lord I believe, help Thou mine unbelief." All 
was safe, all was settled in his favor when it had 
come to that. That confession; those tears; that 
prayer, made his heart's desire sure. There was no 
longer any doubt, his child would be delivered. 
There was no longer any doubt Christ would do for 



THE NECESSITY OF FAITH. 



173 



him all that his necessities required. And yet how 
easy is it to conceive of that man as perplexing him- 
self, even to the loss of what he so earnestly desired; 
how easy to conceive of him as reasoning somewhat 
thus with himself, "It is said to me, ' if thou canst 
believe' and that implies that I have the power to 
believe, and if I do not it is my own fault, and I need 
not ask for help to do what I can do myself. But it 
is said — God's spirit must help, or we cannot have 
faith; and if I have not, He must make me believe. 
If I do not the fault is not mine." And so the prac- 
tical result must have been, that he would neither 
have prayed nor believed, and Christ, with all His 
willingness and power to save, could have profited 
him nothing. 

But there were in that man's mind two distinct 
feelings; a consciousness of his own responsibility, 
and a sense of his own need of God's grace. He did 
not stop to doubt or question, what was implied in 
Christ's words, "if thou canst believe," and make it 
consistent to his own mind, that he, who it was inti- 
mated must and could have faith, should yet call 
upon Christ for that very blessing. He was conscious 
of no inconsistency, in that outburst which at once 
avowed that he had faith, and acknowleged unbelief. 
"Lord I believe, help Thou mine unbelief." That 
was a practical resolution of the difficulty; the natu- 
ral and efficient resource of a mind sensible of its 
responsibility; alive to its necessities, earnest, oh! 
how earnest, not to miss the blessing, which the 
Saviour's gracious words gave assurance was attain- 
able. Can you conceive of anything else, anything 



174 



SERMONS. 



more proper that he should have done ? Did ever 
words better befit an occasion — "Lard I believe, help 
Thou mine unbelief?" So in the issue it appeared 
that he could believe, for he did believe to the saving 
of his son. The very fact of his applying to our 
Lord showed that he had some faith; while the form 
of that application, "if Thou canst do anything," 
showed that there was room for his prayer, " help 
Thou mine unbelief." ^ 

The case of this man is the common case now. 
TTho is utterly destitute of faith in Christ? and yet 
how many have not faith enough to make sure to 
themselves the blessings he died to procure ? They 
do not doubt or question, perhaps, that He is God 
our Saviour; that He died to atone for human guilt; 
that there is none other name given under heaven 
among men whereby we must be saved. There are 
some questionings in their minds, as there were in 
the mind of that father, which have the effect of 
debarring them from the benefits of a Saviour's love 
and power. They have not gotten into the state of 
mind and heart, of that penitent and trusting woman 
to whom our Lord said, " Thy sins are forgiven thee, 
thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace." Oh that all 
such would take counsel of that distressed father. 
They have greater necessities than he was seeking to 
have relieved. They need the pardon of their sins, 
that "the blood of Jesus Christ, may cleanse them 
from all sin." They need to set out, in earnest, in 
the narrow way which leadethunto life; and to have 
the grace of God that they may preserve it unto the 
end. They need to be saved from the power of that 



THE NECESSITY OF FAITH. 



175 



adversary ; who if lie does not now make wrecks of 
human minds and bodies, just as he did in our Lord's 
day, yet does, our Lord Himself being witness, catch 
away the word that is sown in men's hearts, lest they 
should believe and be saved. They want the faith 
which will lead them indeed to trust in Christ, as 
lost sinners; which will fully persuade them to con- 
fess Him before men : which will induce them to 
live on earth in anticipation of, and preparation for 
an endless life with God. And He who comes to 
make all these great blessings sure, even by hum- 
bling Himself to the death upon the cross, He says 
" if thou canst believe. All things are possible unto 
him that believeth." Oh will you not, even as that 
father did, cry out, and say, with tears, "Lord I be- 
lieve, help Thou mine unbelief!" 



SERMON XII. 



THE BAPTISM OF ST. PAXIL. 

And now why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away 
thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. — Acts, xxii. 16. 

Three days before these words were addressed to 
this man; he was no more prepared to be baptized ; 
no more fit to be admitted into the fellowship of 
Christ's religion; than the most thoughtless and sin- 
ful person among us, now is. It had no more en- 
tered into his mind that such a proposal would be 
made to him, and that he would accede to it ; than 
it has entered into your minds that you will die to- 
night. He be baptized! he confess Christ before 
men! he look unto Jesus Christ and Him crucified, 
as the only hope of his sinful and ruined soul ! and 
this, in less than a week ! the idea of such a thing 
never once crossed his mind, even as a bare possi- 
bility. Not only would he have scouted the idea as 
preposterous; he would have been indignant at it, as 
an affront. He did not believe in the Lord Jesus 
Christ. He did not even look upon Him as a good 
man. He thought Him an impostor; and would have 
accounted it the very height of blasphemy to regard 
Him as God, in fashion as a man. And he was 
neither an ignorant nor a vicious person. He was a 
lawyer, highly educated, well acquainted with the 
(176) ' 



THE BAPTISM OF ST. PAUL. 



177 



letter of the Jewish Scriptures/and very exact in his 
observance of the Jewish religion. He was a high- 
minded, honorable man; and, Recording to his ideas 
of the matter, a truly religions man. Certainly, he 
was thoroughly conscientious. He honestly believed 
that his opinions and feelings towards J esus of Naz- 
areth, and the Christian religion, were fully borne 
out by the Scriptures of the Old Testament. And 
when he set himself to work, as he did, to put a stop 
to the progress of Christianity; and, partaking of the 
spirit of his age; sought to do so by persecution; he 
verily thought within himself that he ought to do 
as he did, and that he was, thereby, doing God ser- 
vice. 

Think of such a man having it said to him, within 
three days, "And now why tarriest thou? Arise 
and be baptized." Think of a Christian minister, 
coming to such a man, within such a time, with such 
a purpose. Think of less than a week, linking to- 
gether in his history, two such opposite and contra- 
dictory characters; an enemy of Christ and His 
Church; a believer and baptized follower of the 
Lord. People, now-a-days, think that a person, 
whose opinions, and feelings, and manner of life 
have been very different from what they ought to 
have been ; if he should be baptized, or become a 
communicant; should take a long time to consider; 
should be slow in making up his mind; in fact, that 
he should actually test himself first; and make the 
experiment of trying to live, as he thinks a Christian 
ought to live ; before he actually professes and calls 

16 



178 



SEEMONS. 



himself one. 'Now let us suppose that the man whose 
case is before us, had entertained such opinions ; 
what would have been his reply to the words of 
Christ's minister, "And now why tarriest thou? 
Arise and be baptized?" Why, unquestionably, the 
first thing he would have said would have been, " It 
is too soon. I cannot think of taking such a step so 
hastily. I must have time to reflect upon it. I ad- 
mit it, now, to be a duty, and it m my purpose and 
intention, some time, and perhaps soon, to discharge 
that duty. I can go so far as to say that I will con- 
fess Christ before men; that I will, eventually, seek 
admission into the fellowship of His religion. But 
not now, not at once, not as soon as you propose. I 
admit my opinions and feelings have undergone a 
change. The idea of my being fully persuaded to 
become a Christian, once, aud for a long time, hardly 
admitted into my mind; is now lodged there, as an 
idea to be realized and acted upon. But some delay 
is necessary. I must not act precipitately. It is out 
of the question, within three days of my being what, 
for all my past life, I have been; to think of taking 
such a step." 

Then, doubtless, he would have suggested the pro- 
priety, or even the necessity, of his waiting to ascer- 
tain whether his impressions and convictions and 
feelings were likely to last; whether he would be as 
much disposed, after awhile, to think about becom- 
ing a Christian as he was then. It would be desira- 
ble he should test himself; should discover whether 
his seriousness was a mere temporary thing; or 
whether he would have the mind and the heart to 



THE BAPTISM OF ST. PAUL. 



179 



live like a Christian ; to embody, in his daily walk 
and conversation, his own ideas of what a Christian 
ought to be; whether temper, and tongue, and be- 
havior could be so regulated and controlled, that, 
after he had actually been baptized, and was known 
to be an avowed disciple of Christ, it was probable 
he would be able to avoid those things that were 
contrary to his profession ; and to follow all such 
things as were agreeable to the same. 

And how naturally might the thought have come * 
into the mind of such a man, " What will the world 
think and say of me, should they hear that I have 
been baptized ? I who, so short a time since, was 
not only known to have no such intention ; but who 
for years, for my whole life thus far, have been con- 
ducting myself in a manner which, however respect- 
able in the eye of society, gave no promise of such 
a step. When they hear that I have professed and 
called myself a Christian, and have done so before 
hardly any of them had a suspicion I was thinking 
of such a thing, what will they think and say of 
me?" It does not seem at all improbable that the 
mind of such a person would have been somewhat 
under a sense of shame. He would expect his mo- 
tives to be questioned. He would expect that those 
who knew him, would doubt his sincerity and look 
to see him, very soon again, just what he had been 
in his tastes and pursuits and amusements and asso- 
ciations. They would look to see the opinions and 
habits of a life resuming their sway, as soon as tem- 
porary excitement and seriousness should pass away. 
How natural the desire to make the change as grad- 



180 



SERMONS. 



ual as possible, to prepare other people's minds for 
it not less than his own. 

He had reason to apprehend what he actually did 
experience after he had been baptized, that even 
Christians themselves would have doubts of him. 
For we are told that " when he assayed to join him- 
self to the disciples, they were all afraid of him and 
believed not that he was a disciple." Would it have 
seemed strange if, when three days after, he for the 
* first time in his life thought of becoming a Chris- 
tian, the proposal was made, "Arise and be bap- 
tized," — would it have seemed strange if his reply 
had been at once, " Such a thing is not for one in- 
stant to be thought of, however sincere and earnest 
a determination I may have of some time soon be- 
coming a Christian ; it is impossible I . should take 
so solemn and important a step without much pre- 
vious reflection and preparation. I am not good 
enough to become a Christian now, and cannot think 
of becoming one until I shall be far better satisfied 
with myself than I am at present." Such, we might 
naturally have supposed would have been the replies 
of such a man to the call, "And now why tarriest 
thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy 
sins, calling on the name of the Lord." 

Such, we know, are the replies almost always 
made, when a similar proposal is addressed to those 
who have all the need this man had to accede to it ; 
and who, perhaps, have repeatedly before had their 
attention directed to the duty of publicly confessing 
Christ before men; in baptism, if they have not 
been baptized before; in confirmation, or a partici- 



THE BAPTISM OF ST. PAUL. 



181 



pation in the Holy Communion, if they have. In 
the case before us, however, there was no such de- 
lay. The proposal of the minister of Christ was 
acceded to and acted upon at once. And there were 
hut three days between this man's being an enemy 
of Christ and of His cross ; and his being a peni- 
tent, believing, baptized follower of the Lord Jesus. 

"Now as the history of this case shows, there was 
something extraordinary in the means which were 
employed to alter this man's opinions; to change his 
feelings ; and to bring him to such a state, that when 
the proposal to " arise and be baptized, and wash 
away his sins, calling upon the name of the Lord," 
should be made to him ; he would be willing to obey 
at once. Our blessed Saviour appeared to him and 
spoke to him, from heaven, " Saul, Saul, why perse- 
cutest thou me?" But though the outward means 
employed were thus extraordinary; the real agent of 
the change was that Blessed Spirit, who, now, with- 
out any such extraordinary means, effects precisely 
the same change. For nothing more, or different 
happened in Saul's case, than happens now, when- 
ever a thoughtless, worldly-minded man or woman, 
who has been living without hope and without God 
in the world, comes to a true sense of guilt and dan- 
ger and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, God the 
Saviour, with the belief of the heart. 

Signs and wonders as startling as those Saul wit- 
nessed might, and of themselves, certainly would, 
fail to convince and convert. All did not believe, 
who saw Christ raise Lazarus from the dead. Great 
consideration should ever be shown to the doubts 

16* 



182 



SERMONS. 



and difficulties of honest minds, and no labor is ill 
bestowed which, seeks to satisfy them. But you can- 
not argue a man out of the spirit of unbelief. An 
evil heart of unbelief must be converted, or it will 
never be convinced. And it is the very promise and 
prerogative of the Holy Spirit to do this ; to convince 
of sin; to lay a solid foundation for the cordial belief 
in the Lord Jesus, as God the Almighty Saviour; in 
the conviction of sinfulness before God; in a heart- 
sense of the guilt and the ingratitude and the danger 
of having offended His Divine Majesty; and of the 
utter helplessness of the sinner's case, except as God 
has provided for his relief; in what God, the Sa 
viour, has done and suffered for him. "When a human 
being comes to this point; the only reasons which 
seem to have any place in his mind, are reasons not 
for delay, but against it. If anything is to be done, 
if any step is to be taken ; the heart, the awakened, 
enlightened, sensitive, and anxious heart says, " the 
sooner the better." 

It is quite easy to understand that when a person 
merely feels that his past life has not been quite what 
it should have been; when he thinks he can be bet- 
ter without much difficulty; and that a little im- 
provement of conduct, in this or that respect, is 
pretty much all that is necessary; and that his Sa- 
viour has little else to do, on his behalf, than make 
up, by His merits, for any deficiency in him ; it is 
quite easy to understand, that, when a person has 
only such a superficial and erroneous view of his case ; 
he should see no reason for haste; and find it very 
congenial to his feelings to put off making a profes- 



THE BAPTISM OF ST. PAUL. 



183 



sion of religion as long as possible. But when he 
comes to both perceive and feel, that he is a lost, a 
ruined, a dying sinner; that his whole life has been 
a course of rebellion against the Almighty God ; of 
dark ingratitude towards his Heavenly Parent; that 
he has sins enough to answer for, to sink his soul 
into the pit of destruction; and that if he had com- 
mitted but one, that would render a Saviour abso- 
lutely necessary ; oh ! then is he ready to believe in 
the Lord Jesus Christ; to cast the burden of his sins 
upon Him, who only can relieve him of that dread- 
ful burden. He feels the need of a short and intelli- 
gible answer to his anxious inquiry, "What shall I 
do to be saved?" and he finds just such an answer in 
God's own blessed word. "Believe in the Lord 
Jesus Christ and thou sha.lt be saved." He has 
nothing to say for himself but " God be merciful to 
me a sinner." 

The idea of waiting to try himself, or to become 
good enough before he would become a Christian ; 
is as preposterous to his mind, as would be the idea 
of a man in danger of death from a dreadful disease, 
concluding to wait till he should become well enough, 
before he would take the proper medicine. As pre- 
posterous as would be the thought of a helpless bank- 
rupt, who should decline a release until he had earned 
a little. Oh no, he is a lost sinner ! and desires that 
pardon and salvation, which he can do nothing to 
procure ; and which Christ, his Saviour, has, by His 
own infinite merits and death, made sure for him. 
And he puts his trust in Him. He says, "Lord, 
save me, or I perish." "Lord I believe, help Thou 



184 



SERMONS. 



mine unbelief." And when he is told, "And now why 
tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away 
thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord," he is 
ready to obey without any delay, and 'trusts that the 
God who thus freely; in this outward and visible 
sacrament signs and seals his pardon ; will give him 
all the grace he may need, for all the trials and temp- 
tations and responsibilities of his Christian course. 
He means to test himself; but frail, sinful creature 
that he is, he will do so with those aids of God's 
grace, that he cannot expect to enjoy, and has no 
promise of, except as a baptized penitent and be- 
liever. 

You perceive then, why Saul made no difficulty 
about complying with a call, which, to a superficial 
observer, might seem so strange— why he neither de- 
sired nor asked a week's delay, or even a day's; but 
at once was admitted into the fellowship of Christ's 
religion. His arrogance, and pride and self-conceit 
and self- righteousness were all gone. He saw and 
felt that he had been mistaken on a vital point; that 
the very Being he had rejected, and been worse than 
indifferent to ; was the only Being who could save 
his soul from death ; the only Being who could stand 
between him, and that righteous displeasure of the 
thrice Holy God, which his sins had incurred. 

You know how a person feels and acts who is sen- 
sible, at last, he is laboring under a fearful and dan- 
gerous bodily disease; and yet believes his case is 
not hopeless ; and has confidence in the skill and ten- 
derness which are ministering to him. With what 
a child-like spirit he resigns himself to the use of 



THE BAPTISM OF ST. PAUL. 



185 



the means essential to his safety ! and, utterly unable 
to help himself, put his whole trust and confidence 
in those who can and are disposed to help him. 

So was it with Saul, converted and become as a 
little child; alive to his guilt and danger, and yet 
hopeful of the possibility of his being saved. What 
a perfect surrender was there to his Saviour in those 
words, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" He 
had let go his unbelief. His faith laid firm hold of 
Him who only is mighty to save. His ear was opened. 
He had but to be told his duty, and he was ready, in 
God's strength, for its immediate discharge. And 
when he stood up and was baptized, think you he 
felt he could say he never should forget that vow, 
promise and profession; never should fail to act as 
becometh the gospel of Christ ? that having put his 
hand to the plough, he would never look back? 
Why, after he had been a minister for years, he writes, 
" But I keep under my body, and bring it into sub- 
jection, lest after having preached to others, I myself 
should be a cast-away!" While he was ''confident 
of this very thing, that God who had begun a good 
work in him, would perform it into the day of Jesus 
Christ:" he yet felt how absolutely necessary it was, 
and would be to the end; that he should watch and 
pray and walk circumspectly. 

And he knew where his true strength lay. " When 
I am weak, then am I strong." A proper, constant 
sense of his own weakness; a firm trust in the 
almighty power of divine grace. And so he could 
write; he who felt that he could do nothing of him- 
self ; that if left to himself he would certainly dis- 



186 



SERMONS. 



honor his Lord, and desert His cause, and lose his 
own soul, he could yet write, "I can do all things 
through Christ who strength eneth me." What he 
felt he was — a lost and ruined sinner; what he felt 
his Saviour was; and could and would be to him — 
an Almighty and All-sufficient Saviour from the 
penalty and dominion of sin ; were all so many argu- 
ments against any delay; so many weighty reasons 
for immediate compliance with the call, "And now 
why tarriest thou ? Arise and be baptized and wash 
away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord." 

Ye who have yet to be baptized; or to take some 
equivalent step, in order to your being considered, 
or considering yourselves on the Lord's side ; to you, 
each one, is the call addressed to-day, "And now 
why tarriest thou ?" One reason, undoubtedly, there 
may be why your course should differ from that of 
Saul; one reason there maybe in your cases for de- 
lay, which did not exist in his. He felt his need of 
calling upon the Lord. He felt that he had sins to 
be washed away ; and from which only the blood of 
Jesus Christ could cleanse him. You may not. He 
felt he was a condemned sinner, and certain to be 
lost, except his peace should be made through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. You may not. Here would be a 
difference. ISTot in the facts of the two cases, for 
there is no difference whatever there. You are as 
really sinners, and in as real peril of losing your 
souls, and as certain to lose them, if you do not 
seek the forgiveness of your sins at Christ's hands, 
as Saul was. 

I am instituting no comparison between his char- 



THE BAPTISM OF ST. PAUL. 



187 



acter and conduct and yours. But, resting my as- 
sertion on the sure ground of God's own declara- 
tion, that all have sinned and come short of the 
glory of God; and that Jesus Christ came into the 
world to save sinners, which assumes that the ob- 
jects of His mercy and condescension, all of us, are 
sinners, and lost but for Him; lost, unless we seek 
and obtain the salvation He came to provide and 
bestow. There is no essential difference between 
the facts of the cases. Your condition, your neces- 
sities, and your duties are precisely what Saul's were. 
The only room for any difference is, that while he 
was sensible of all this, in his case, you may not be 
in yours. Like a man who should shut his eyes and 
say, " There is no sun;" and walk forward towards a 
frightful precipice and say, "There is no danger." 

You, unpardoned and certain to be cast- away s, if 
you should die in your present state of mind, are 
living on. as if there were no sins; "no Saviour;" 
no need of thought, or anxiety, or effort on your 
part, to avert the most frightful catastrophe which 
can possibly befall an immortal being; even to be 
cut off, "unprepared to meet his God," and to lose 
his own soul. Oh, how do all such need to pray, 
"Lord, open mine eyes that I sleep not in death!" 

"Ye sinners seek His grace 

Whose wrath ye cannot bear, 
Fly to the shelter of His cross, 
And find salvation there." 

Has the light of a conviction of sinfulness dawned 
on any mind ? Has the Holy Spirit, by the agency 
of the truth and the events of Providence, been 



188 



SERMONS. 



moving upon the surface of any heart? Has the 
desire been awakened for that peace of God which 
the world can neither give nor take away ? Hear 
what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith 
unto all who truly turn unto Him, " Come unto me 
all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will 
refresh you." If, in any degree, the remembrance 
of your sins has become grievous unto you, and you 
desire God's pardon, and are willing to accept that 
pardon as a free gift, bestowed upon you wholly and 
solely for Christ's sake, come, freely come ; imitate 
Saul's course ; tarry not at all. Choose you this day 
whom you will serve ; and let that choice commit 
you, for life and for death, for time and for eternity, 
to His service, "who His own self bare our sins in 
His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to 
sin, should live unto righteousness." 

Coming in such a spirit, you need have no fears 
for the future. God's grace will be sufficient for 
you. You may have temptations, many and daily; 
but, by His aid, you will be enabled successfully to 
resist them. You may have duties, various and 
arduous; but He will strengthen you for their dis- 
charge. You may be called upon to encounter sor- 
rows and trials; it may be, as life rolls on, many and 
keen : but in His promises and grace you will find 
your all-sufficient consolation and support. You 
must die ; but He whom you have chosen is the Re- 
surrection and the Life, and Himself hath said: "He 
that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall 
he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth' in me 
shall never die." You must stand before the Judg- 



THE BAPTISM OF ST. PAUL. 189 

ment-seat of Christ ; but He who is to occupy that 
dread tribunal is the very Saviour you will have 
chosen ; and from those very lips which once, upon 
the cross, exclaimed, " It is finished," when He was 
dying for your sins ; from those very lips will you 
hear the gracious words of welcome, "Come, ye 
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared 
for you from the foundation of the world." Oh, as 
you love your own salvation, listen to God's call, 
addressed to you to-day: "And now why tarriest 
thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy 
sins, calling upon the name of the Lord." 



11 



SERMON XIII. 



THE LOVE OE GOD IN CHRIST. 

He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how 
shall He not with Him, also, freely give us all things. — Romans, 
viii. 32. 

How plainly do the Scriptures teach that God de- 
sireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he 
should turn from his wickedness and live ! He asks, 
and the question seems to carry with it, its own affect- 
ing reply, " Have I any pleasure at all, that the wicked 
should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he 
should return from his ways and live?" And then 
how tenderly, how earnestly does He expostulate, 
with those who by their sins, were endangering their 
souls ! " Eepent and turn yourselves from all your 
transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin. 
Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby 
ye have transgressed, and make you a new heart and 
a new spirit ; for why will ye die ? For I have no 
pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the 
Lord God; wherefore turn yourselves and live ye." 

These assurances are made doubly sure by what 
God has done, in order that we may not perish, but 
may have everlasting life ; in order that when our 
change shall come, we may depart hence, with a rea- 
sonable, religious and holy hope. "He spared not 
(190) 



THE LOVE OF GOD IN CHEIST. 



191 



His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." "He 
so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
perish, but should have everlasting life." He hath 
laid upon Him, the iniquity of us all. He delivered 
Him up to be made a curse for us; to be made a sac- 
rifice for the sins of the whole world. He sent Him 
to earth, to make that atonement and satisfaction for 
our offences against God; without which we must 
all have borne each one for himself, our own burden 
of punishment; and that burden would have been 
everlasting wretchedness. What a wonderful mani- 
festation of love for us and for our salvation was this ! 
What should we say of a parent who to rescue some 
worthless individuals from captivity in a foreign and 
barbarous country, should send thither his only and 
beloved child; knowing that he would be exposed 
to many and great dangers, and possibly incur the 
loss of life ? It was more, infinitely more than this, 
that Almighty God did for us; when His eternal Son 
humbled Himself and was made man; was born 
into this world, lying in wickedness, to rescue a race 
of guilty creatures from the power of Satan, of sin 
and of death. God the Father knew, how He would 
be despised and rejected of men; how He would be 
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and how 
at length, nailed to the ignominious cross, He would 
there lay down His life a ransom for sinners. And 
yet, "He spared not His own son, but delivered Him 
up for us all;" for you, for me, for every human be- 
ing; that we might not have to taste the bitter pains 
of eternal death; but might pass from a life of pen- 



192 



SERMONS. 



itence and faith and obedience upon earth, to the 
enjoyment of God's unchangeable favor. 

Now, it is upon this great fact which so conclu- 
sively proves God's love for sinners, and His willing- 
ness that they should be saved ; it is upon this great 
fact, that the Apostle takes his stand, and argues 
against all doubtfulness and distrust, " He that spared 
not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all — 
how shall He not with Him freely give us all things ?' ' 
"Would it be a greater act of favor on the part of God, 
to grant to any particular person, the pardon of his 
sins, than it was for Him to deliver up His Son to die 
for the sins of the whole world ? If He spared not His 
own Son ; will he refuse to forgive the transgressions 
of those for whom that Son was crucified? Having 
granted the greatest blessing, will He withhold the 
less? Need any individual, who has even the faint- 
est desire, so it be but sincere, to be at peace 
with God; despair or doubt whether He will grant 
perfect remission and forgiveness? Hear what com- 
fortable words this same Apostle speaks in another 
place, "For when we were yet without strength; in 
due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely 
for a righteous man will one die ; yet, peradventure, 
for a good man, some would even dare to die. But 
God commendeth His love towards us, in that while 
we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Much more 
then, being now justified by His grace, we shall 
be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we 
were enemies, we were reconciled to God, by the 
death of His Son ; much more being reconciled we 
shall be saved by His life, seeing," as the Apostle 



THE LOVE OF GOD IN CHRIST. 



193 



says in another place, "He ever liveth to make in- 
tercession for us." The wicked then, have but to 
forsake their ways, and the unrighteous their 
thoughts, and to return unto the Lord and He will 
abundantly pardon them. " Come now and let us 
reason together, saith the Lord ; though your sins be 
as scarlet, they shall be white as snow, and though 
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." 
"If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to 
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un- 
righteousness." 

As you look over your past lives and perceive how 
by thought, word and deed, you have provoked God's 
indignation and wrath against you. How you have 
loved the world instead of God; and pleased your- 
selves instead of trying to please the Lord, who 
bought you. How you have received unnumbered 
blessings from your merciful Creator, without think- 
ing of them; without acknowledging them; without, 
at all, being grateful for them. How you have made 
His goodness in continuing your health and sparing 
your lives, only a reason, for neglecting to believe 
in and obey the gospel; only an encouragement for 
putting off to a more convenient season, attention to 
the things which belong to your everlasting peace. 
As you look over your past lives and perceive how 
all seems to be sinful; do not your hearts feel inclined 
to prompt the prayer, " God be merciful to me a sin- 
ner ?" In view of the great uncertainty of your lives, 
and the possibility that you may ere long, be called 
into the eternal world — does it not appear to you 

11* 



194 



SERMONS. 



greatly to be desired, that God would blot out your 
sins and remember your iniquities no more ? 

I cannot but hope that it is so with some of you, 
who hitherto have cared for none of these things. 
I cannot but hope that, after such a long season of 
waiting, some will be found who will have made the 
decision of the prodigal son : "I will arise and go to 
my Father, and will say unto Him, Father, I have 
sinned before heaven and in Thy sight, and am no 
more worthy to be called Thy Son." Gladly would 
I hold out the encouragement of God's exceeding 
great and precious promises ; to the faintest inclina- 
tion, leading to the ways of obedience ; to the earli- 
est manifestation of the broken and contrite heart. 
Oh ! how should those who have, as it were, come 
to themselves and begun to be aware that they have 
indeed wearied their heavenly Parent with their in- 
iquities ! how should they be drawn towards God, by 
the full assurance of forgiveness, which He so mer- 
cifully offers. " He that spared not His own Son, 
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not 
with Him also freely give us all things!" 

What son or daughter of the Lord Almighty, who 
is at all willing or desirous to be pardoned; to serve 
God; to be saved with an everlasting salvation; 
need be in doubt whether their sins will be forgiven 
them for Christ's sake? It was to render that for- 
giveness possible; it was to make us " miserable sin- 
ners, who lay in darkness and the shadow of death, 
the children of God," and to exalt us to everlasting 
life, that Jesus, the only begotten, the well-beloved, 
the everlasting Son of the Father, was delivered up 



THE LOVE OP GOD IN CHRIST. 



195 



to the bitter agonies of the Cross ! "When one who 
has forgotten God; forgotten Christ; forgotten his 
soul; forgotten the Judgment, comes to a better 
mind, and desires pardon for the past; then a result 
is reached which satisfies even the Lord who shed 
His blood for sinners. " There is joy in the presence 
of the angels of God over one sinner that repent- 
eth." And no inhabitant of heaven, so largely par- 
takes of that joy as the Lamb of God, that taketh 
away the sins of the world. Surely then they who 
can say, " We will confess our wickedness and be 
sorry for our sin," need not doubt, but should earn- 
estly believe that God will favorably receive them ; 
that He will grant them remission of their sins, how 
many soever, and how aggravated soever those sins 
may have been. Truly repenting and coming unto 
Him by faith, God that showeth mercy will release 
them from their sins. Made members of His church 
by baptism, they will have a covenant title to the 
pardon of all their transgressions. 

And with the same confidence may we look to 
receive grace to help in every time of need. When 
it can be said of any one, who before has not cared 
for his soul, " Behold he prayeth ;" when He who 
seeth in secret observes one of His sinful creatures 
engaged in prayer for the pardon of his sins; for 
newness of life; for the soul's salvation; He will 
look down from heaven with an eye of tender com- 
passion, and grant all those things that are asked 
of Him. No one will say in vain who says in earn- 
estness and sincerity, "Grant unto me true repent- 
ance; forgive me all my sins, negligences, and igno- 



196 



SERMONS. 



ranees, and endue me with the grace of Thy Holy 
Spirit, to amend my life according to Thy Holy 
"Word." It was " that wretched sinners such as 
we" might enjoy the aids of God's Holy Spirit — not 
less than that our sins should he pardoned — that our 
heavenly Father spared not His Son, but gave Him 
up freely for us all. That inestimable gift of God's 
well-beloved Son, is therefore an abundant assurance 
that if we ask we shall receive; if we seek we shall 
find; that His Holy Spirit will be granted to them 
that ask it, with greater certainty than good things 
would be granted to their children by earthly pa- 
rents for the asking. We have no power of our- 
selves to help ourselves ; and when we go to God in 
the name of Jesus Christ, and ask for His sake that 
we may be enabled truly to repent; sincerely to be- 
lieve, habitually to obey the gospel; will not our 
prayer be answered? Will not the daily petitions 
of those who would serve God and prepare for their 
latter end, and save their souls from death, be heard 
by Him who is " gracious and merciful, slow to 
anger, and of great kindness, not willing that any , 
should perish; but that all should come to repent- 
ance?" Will He who "spared not His own Son, 
but delivered Him up for us all," deny that spiritual 
assistance which is necessary to our being saved by 
that Son ? — necessary to our having a new heart and 
a right spirit; necessary to our leading a godly and 
a Christian life; to our so passing through things 
temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal? 
Oh, no ! God's surrender of His well-beloved Son 
to the agonies of the cross, is all the proof we need, 



THE LOVE OF GOD IN CHRIST. 



197 



that we have but to ask in Christ's name, and our peti- 
tion will be granted. Day by day, according as we 
have need, God will make His strength perfect in 
our weakness. He will enable us to set Him always 
before us; to act with an habitual reference to His 
will and laws ; to pass the time of our sojourning here 
in fear, as strangers and pilgrims, who do not look 
upon this world as their home ; but who expect, ere 
long, to be summoned to a better country. "What- 
ever is needed, in order to our leading godly and 
Christian lives; in order to our walking humbly 
with our God we may be sure of; if only we will 
wait upon our God. 

When a fellow-being does great things for us ; it 
makes us feel that we have a warrant, for expect- 
ing other kindnesses. And where his favors have 
been shown, for the very purpose of calling out con- 
fidence in him ; should we not reproach ourselves if 
we distrusted his goodness and doubted his readiness 
further to aid us? Let us not treat our Heavenly 
Parent, as we should be ashamed to treat a human 
being. We cannot possibly desire to be saved, as 
strongly as He desires to save us. And if He have 
put into our hearts the good desires, to forsake sin ; 
to believe in and obey the Saviour; and henceforth, 
to walk in newness of life ; let it encourage us to go 
forward ; to be much in prayer and in the reading 
of His Holy word ; that we may never again relapse 
into carelessness, and indifference ; but grow in favor 
with God as life passes away, and die the death of 
the righteous when our appointed time shall have 
come. "How shall He not with Him, also freely 



198 



SERMONS. 



give us all things! " All things needful for our serv- 
ing Him acceptably, with reverence and godly fear: 
all things needful to our peace and comfort, when 
flesh and strength are failing; and the dark valley of 
the shadow of death is just before us : all things need- 
ful to our security, when the trumpet shall sound, 
and the dead shall be raised, and we shall stand be- 
fore the judgment-seat of Christ. Oh yes! freely 
for the great Redeemer's merits, will the God of all 
grace " do for us exceeding abundantly, above all 
that we can ask or think." The gift of His Son is 
a pledge that cannot be mistaken, cannot be misun- 
derstood. If He loved us even when we were ene- 
mies sufficiently to make that great surrender for 
our sakes ; He has nothing to give, which we are 
capable of receiving, and which can promote our 
happiness that we may not look for. ~We may "go 
boldly unto the throne of grace to obtain mercy, and 
to find grace to help in every time of need." 

And will you not do so? Will you not resolve in 
God's strength to repent of and forsake sin ? Will you 
not become the professed follower of that Jesus, who 
"was delivered up for us all" by His Father: that 
when He shall come again in His glorious majesty to 
judge both the quick and the dead; you may rise to 
the life eternal through Him ? Life is too uncertain 
to think of delay. The interests of your immortal 
souls, are too precious to be put in jeopardy by pro- 
crastination. The repentance of the sick and dying 
bed is too little to be relied upon, to allow your 
hopes to rest upon it. I beseech you, by the mercies 
of God, what you do, do quickly. And banish every 



THE LOVE OF GOD IN CHRIST. 



199 



doubt, every feeling of distrust, that would incline 
you to fear lest your endeavor to serve the Lord 
Christ, and save your soul from death should be un- 
successful. Let the comforting declaration of God's 
own word encourge you, as it should every penitent 
sinner. "He that spared not His own Son, but de- 
livered Him up for us all ; how shall He not with 
Him, also freely give us all things!*' 



SERMON XIV. 



THE SINS OF OUR YOUTH. 
Remember not the sins of my youth. — Psalms, xxv. 7. 

This was the prayer of one who had reached 
the years of manhood. It was an earnest supplica- 
tion of him who is decribed, in God's Holy Word, 
as the man after God's own heart. It does not ap- 
pear that the youth of David was marked by pecu- 
liar sinfulness ; so far from it, indeed, that we have 
reason to believe that he feared the Lord from his 
youth. "Whatever the sins of that period of his life 
may have been, they were not the sins of one who 
was an habitual transgressor of the Divine laws. An 
interesting incident in his early history, assures us 
that he pleased God long ere the bloom of youth 
had faded from his cheeks. When God rejected 
Saul from being King of Israel; because of his dis- 
obedience ; this divine message was communicated 
to the prophet Samuel: " Fill thine horn with oil, 
and go; I will send thee to Jesse, the Bethlehemite ; 
for I have provided me a king among his sons." 
And Samuel did that which the Lord spake. One 
after another the Sons of Jesse came before him. 
"And it came to pass when they were come, that 
he looked on Eliab and said, Surely the Lord's 
( 200) 



THE SINS OF OUR YOUTH. 



201 



anointed is before Him. But the Lord said unto 
Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the 
height of his stature, because I have refused him: 
for the Lord seeth not as man seeth ; for man look- 
eth upon the outward appearance ; but the Lord 
looketh on the heart." It was only when last of all 
David was brought before the prophet, that the Lord 
said, "Arise, anoint him, for this is he." "Now he 
was ruddy and withal of a beautiful countenance and 
goodly to look to." Thus, in the freshness of early 
manhood ; perhaps even before he was of age ; was 
David chosen by God to succeed Saul, King of Is- 
rael — chosen, too, as the narrative appears very 
plainly to intimate; because he was acceptable to 
Him who looketh "not upon the outward appear- 
ance, but upon the heart." 

The presumption from this fact would be, that his 
youth had been a youth of piety towards God; and 
all his subsequent conduct confirms that presump- 
tion ; for his whole behavior, in the earliest periods 
of his history of which we have any knowledge, in- 
dicates firmly established habits of obedience; long 
cherished religious principle and feelings. But the 
matter is placed beyond doubt by his own words in 
the seventy-first Psalm, where he says, "Oh God, 
Thou hast taught me from my youth, and hitherto 
have I declared Thy wondrous works." He was a 
rare instance of a pious boy, a beautiful example of 
one who " remembered his Creator in the days of 
his youth." The cheerfulness of childhood shone 
forth in its attractiveness, without the usual accom- 
paniments of its levity and thoughtlessness. "While 

18 



202 



SERMONS. 



he was dutiful and affectionate to his earthly parents, 
he did not forget that he had a heavenly Father. 
He never thought himself too young to be obliged 
to love and serve God; and he does not seem to 
have supected that it would at all interfere with his 
youthful happiness; if he diligently endeavored to 
do so. He was none the less, but, on the contrary, 
far more cheerful, contented and happy, because he 
bore the yoke in his youth. 

Yet when he became a man, and, in seasons of 
self-examination, looked over his past life ; when he 
called to mind the details of his early history — 
thought of his childhood's home and his own deport- 
ment towards its beloved inmates ; pious though he 
had been, and exemplary beyond other children in 
men's eyes; he did not seem to himself to have been 
faultless. He judged himself by the standard of 
God's holy law; and he had such correct opinions 
as to how much it required, and such a deep convic- 
tion of the sinfulness of transgressing it; that he 
could remember sins where perhaps no human being 
had detected any; he could adjudge himself guilty 
before God, where all but himself would have said 
he was without fault. And so it happened that, 
while in the estimation of the world, David had 
reason only to be proud of the excellence and love- 
liness of his youth; his own heart prompted the 
earnest prayer, " Remember not the sins of my 
youth." 

IsTow here is the case of a truly pious man ; one 
who had been such, for years, calling to remembrance 
and imploring the forgiveness of, sins committed 



THE SINS OF OUR YOUTH. 



203 



when he was young. He did not suppose that of- 
fences against the Lord, the less needed to be con- 
fessed, because many years had elapsed, since they 
were charged against him. He did not suppose that 
present efforts to serve God, obliterated the whole 
history of the past. It was no part of his belief that 
to forget the sins of his youth, was to make the Lord 
forget them too. No ! He distinctly acknowledged 
and he deeply felt; these two things; that God re- 
members the transgressions of His laws, and that 
He will remember them until the prayer is made, 
" Remember them not." He knew, and by that 
knowledge did he regulate his conduct; by that 
knowledge did he frame his addresses to God, " if we 
confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive 
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteous- 
ness." "If we confess them," full and free as is this 
promise of pardon; it is a promise, with a condi- 
tion. 

Now this thought is far too often lost sight of; and 
this is especially apt to be the case, when those who 
have spent many years of life, as sinners against God 
and their own souls, are brought to the determina- 
tion to lead a godly life. They appear to think that 
such a determination wipes out the entire history of 
past guiltiness; that though they neither remember 
nor feel sorry for, nor confess, the offences against 
God of the years that have gone by; those offences 
are all cancelled. They do not feel called upon to 
think over their transgressions against the great and 
dreadful God, even so far back as their youth; and 
with true penitent hearts to bewail themselves before 



204 



SERMONS. 



their Almighty Lord and Saviour. They are con- 
tented to include in a general confession all that is 
past ; losing sight, almost entirely, of the specified 
sins, which from time to time, they have "most 
grievously committed ; by thought, word, and deed, 
against God's divine majesty." The many years of 
early life; during which, no more effort was made 
to please God, than if no such Being had existed; 
the many years of early life, when His sacred laws 
were disregarded, and His awful authority treated 
with utter neglect and forgetfulness ; all these are 
omitted in the confession and repentance of sin. 

And what is certain to be the consequence of this ? 
Can that sorrow for sin, be so sincere, and, if I may 
use the expression, thoroughgoing, which is awak- 
ened by a mere general remembrance, that the past 
has been spent unprofitably and sinfully; as that 
which is awakened by the recollection of the partic- 
ulars of our sinfulness? We do not adequately ap- 
preciate the immense distances of the stars from the 
earth, by a glance at the sum total of those dis- 
tances. Will it not be far more impressive to remem- 
ber; in that act, I broke a law of God ; by that word, I 
violated His sacred commandment; that motive; those 
feelings; those tempers and habits were in known 
opposition to His revealed will? As often as I was 
profane; as often as I was intemperate; as often as I 
failed to speak the truth; as often as I was proud and 
envious, and sensual and passionate, and unforgiving; 
God was angry with me for sin. All the while I for- 
gat my Maker, I was guilty before Him ; all the while 
my neglect of prayer, and my conscious indifference 



THE SINS OF OUR YOUTH. 



205 



about eternal things, indicated a heart not right in 
His sight; He looked upon me with displeasure? 

And our Saviour Himself, in one of His beautiful 
parables has taught us, how much our rightly valuing 
the great things He has done for our souls, depends 
upon our having correct ideas of the extent of our 
transgressions ; and that deep-felt sorrow for them, 
which a remembrance of them in detail, is likely best 
to produce. "Jesus, answering, said unto him, 
'Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee,' and he 
said, 'Master, say on.' ' There was a certain creditor 
which had two debtors : the one owed five hundred 
pence and the other fifty. And when they had 
nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. 
Tell me therefore, which of them will love Him 
most?' Simon answered, and said, 'I suppose he 
to whom he forgave most;' and He answered, 
' Thou hast rightly judged.' " It is when the thoughts 
wander back over the past ; even to the season of 
youth, and embrace, so far as it is possible, the mul- 
titude of particulars in which we have done amiss, 
the extended detail of all kinds of guiltiness before 
the heart-searching and holy God; it is when the 
debt we owe to divine justice is adequately appreci- 
ated, by a review of its thousand items of wicked- 
ness; it is then, that we can most sincerely and heartily 
bless the Lord for the shedding of that precious 
blood, which cleanses from all sin. 

isTeed I suggest to you, how strong an argument 
against delay is furnished by the importance of re- 
membering past sins,' that God may remember them 
no more ? and the serious difficulty of doing so ? A 

18* 



206 



SERMONS. 



superficial repentance, that descends not to the no- 
tice of particular sins; is not difficult even late in life. 
But a thorough, searching, intelligent repentance, 
grows harder every day ; for the days of most persons' 
lives are so much alike, so little distinguished from 
each other, by their respective histories, that, though 
each may have witnessed many sins against God, 
they gradually become, so to speak, an undistin- 
guishable mass of our existence. Yet while to us 
they appear so, to the Omniscient Judge each stands 
out, in its distinct solitary sinfulness. How danger- 
ous a mistake, then, to put off repentance ! How 
great risk, to so accumulate our accounts with God, 
before we begin to prepare to meet Him ; that we 
shall be obliged to die and stand before His bar; 
ignorant to a great extent, how numerous our sins 
may have been against Him ; and conscious that, to 
an alarming degree, we have failed to confess them. 
If there were any way of entirely putting off the day 
of reckoning; then there were no folly perhaps in 
not repenting; in always deferring it to a more con- 
venient season. But it is written, and who can or 
dare doubt it, "God hath appointed a day in which 
He will judge the world in righteousness by that 
man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath 
given assurance unto all men in that He hath raised 
Him from the dead." 

David's prayer, uttered when he was a man, " Re- 
member not the sins of my youth," is indeed of a 
general character, and does not descend into detail ; 
but it clearly indicates both that he was disposed to 
do so, and was in the habit, in his private thoughts 



THE SINS OF OUR YOUTH. 



207 



and prayers of doing so. No man of his years, 
whose early life had been so comparatively blame- 
less; and who was inclined to content himself with 
a mere general confession of sinfulness ; no such man 
would have thought at all of, or said anything about, 
"the sins of his youth." 

But besides the general instruction of the obliga- 
tion and importance of a thorough remembrance of 
past sins, afforded by David's prayer; that prayer 
also, most emphatically says, to those who have fallen 
far short of David's excellencies — "Go thou and do 
likewise." What were the sins of David's youth, 
compared with those of your youth, who are even 
now enemies of God by wicked works ? He feared, 
and loved, and obeyed the Lord; even in his boy- 
hood; God's Holy Word was esteemed by him; he 
reverenced its authority; he believed its doctrines; 
he followed its directions. If he was a dutiful child, 
it was because his God had said, "Honor thy father 
and thy mother." If he was honest, and truth-lov- 
ing, and industrious, and kind, and gentle, and 
humble, it was that he might please the Lord his 
God, by being so. He did not make his youth an 
excuse for inconsideration, and levity, and utter neg- 
lect of all that concerned his soul and his salvation. 
He knew that though he was young, he was old 
enough to be accountable to his Maker; he knew 
that though he was young, he was liable to death; 
and therefore was in duty and interest bound to live 
in such a state that he might never be afraid to die: 
and, proving to all after generations, the perfect 
practicability, by God's grace, of a young person's 



208 



SERMONS. 



securing the divine favor; he succeeded in his en- 
deavors to live godly ; he was approved, even by Him 
who looketh upon the heart. Yet he knew that he 
had "sins of his youth " to confess; when he asked 
his own conscience what did God's law require of 
me, and how far did I meet its requisitions, he could 
plainly perceive shortcomings and offences enough 
to he sorry for. 

But look hack to your youth, if it has already 
passed by; or consider it, if you now are young. 
Did you, do you love God and keep His command- 
ments? At a period of life when the feelings are 
peculiarly tender; and when, therefore, the goodness 
of God and the amazing love of Christ, might be 
expected to deeply affect the heart, and strongly in- 
cline it to a grateful obedience, was such, is it the case? 
In boyhood or girlhood, were you, or are you now, mind- 
ful of an ever-present God and of a future day of 
reckoning? Were you, or are you diligent to obey the 
dictates of conscience, and the teachings of the Holy 
Scriptures ? Ah if it had been so, or now were; how 
different a state of things would exist among us at 
present! When the Lord's table was spread, and the 
emblems of His dying love offered, many a young 
person would be seen, with streaming eyes, and coun- 
tenance lit up with holy emotion, partaking of the 
sacred feast. There would be no diminution of cheer- 
fulness in the young ; no, they would be more truly 
happy than they ever can be, while living a godless 
life. But their cheerfulness would not be levity; 
it would be sobered and chastened and sanctified 
by the seriousmindedness of habitual remembrance 



THE SINS OF OUR YOUTH. 



209 



" Thou God seest me." " Every one of us must give 
an account of himself to God." The conversation 
of the young, and the conduct of the young would 
indicate a deeper anxiety to show themselves ap- 
proved unto God, than to merely be attractive, in 
the eyes of others; or to please themselves. 

But what is the actual state of things ? What char- 
acters do the young bear? Are the sins of their 
youth few and unfrequent? Do our young men, and 
those who are in still earlier life, fear God and keep 
His commandments? Do they avoid those habits and 
practices which injure their good name in society, 
and distress the hearts of all who love them; while 
they have the still worse effect of provoking the in- 
dignation and wrath of God ? Do they avoid pro- 
fanity and intemperance as they would avoid a 
plague ? Do they make the better part of society 
rejoice over them, or mourn for them? Alas, the 
case is not infrequent, in which "the sins of youth" 
are rapidly wrecking the bodies and the souls of 
young men. 

And where all gross habits of vice are carefully 
avoided, how commonly is utter insensibility to all 
religious obligation manifested; and such a life led 
as would be becoming only, if no such things as 
death, judgment, and eternity had ever been heard 
of! Both sexes seem to forget and be unmindful of 
God their Saviour, who has done such great things 
for them. If a careless daughter comes to a better 
mind, and begins to live as all will wish they had 
done when they shall come to die ; it seems to strike 
the young as a strange thing. They would not be 



210 



SERMONS. 



surprised if a gay and thoughtless companion should 
evince great anxiety about the apprehended failure 
of some long cherished scheme of pleasure, but that 
she should begin to care for that soul which the ago- 
nies of the Son of God redeemed; that she should 
be solicitous not to be overtaken unawares by death; 
that she should feel the great sinfulness of disregard- 
ing the will of the God in whose presence she must 
shortly appear; this does excite the most unfeigned 
surprise. Some even jest about it, and make it a 
matter of merriment; others, more sober-minded 
and thoughtful, yet look upon it as something out of 
the natural course. 

What must be "the sins of youth" when such a 
condition of affairs prevails? When " God, who is 
of purer eyes than to behold iniquity," looks down 
from heaven and sees the young His enemies; when 
the Saviour from the right hand of the Father, 
witnesses the young undervaluing His mercy and 
love and blood-bought blessings ; how numerous, how 
great must their sins and guilt appear! Have you 
ever prayed, "Remember not the sins of my youth? " 
And if you have not, will you not be persuaded to 
do so ? If you have gotten over that early stage of 
existence ; and are yet habitually unmindful of the 
God of all your blessing ; of Him who loved you and 
gave himself for you ; is it not high time to awaken 
out of sleep and begin the work of repentance and 
preparation for God's presence? And if you are still 
young, will you not, ere your accounts with God 
defy a thorough comprehension, say unto Him, "My 
Father, Thou art the guide of my youth ?" Youth- 



THE SINS OF OUR YOUTH. 



211 



ful sins, unconfessed, unforsaken, will only pave the 
way for the obdurate worldliness and hardness of 
heart, of matured years; will only separate between 
you and your God, so as to make your return increas- 
ingly difficult. It will be your safety ; it will be your 
happiness for this life and the next, if looking to Him 
who endured the cross, for their pardon ; you resolve, 
at once in God's strength that David's prayer shall 
be yours, "Remember not the sins of my youth ! " 



SERMON XV. 



THE ADVANTAGES OF EARLY PURITY. 

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly; 
nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the 
scornful. — Psalms, i. 1. 

The first thought which seems to be suggested by 
these words, is a thought directly contradictory of a 
very prevalent opinion. That opinion is, that the 
piety of a man who has once been notoriously 
wicked, is of a peculiarly valuable character, and 
much to be confided in. He who has, even for many 
years, been profane and impious; whose words and 
deeds have proclaimed him emphatically an enemy 
of God and his own soul ; and who afterwards be- 
comes an entirely different character; ceases to do 
evil and learns to do well; passes through a season 
of deep despondency and sorrow on account of his 
sins; and then finds peace and joy in believing; he 
is, by many, accounted a better sort of Christian, 
than those who have feared God from their youth, 
and never fallen into any bad habits of speech or 
action. It seems to be supposed that it is better for 
an individual to have been practically acquainted 
with evil; to have had his own conscience defiled; 
to have known in his own experience how evil and 
bitter a thing it is to sin against the Lord. And to 
(212) 



THE ADVANTAGES OF EARLY PURITY. 213 

such an extent is this notion carried by some, that it 
is almost esteemed a necessary qualification of a 
preacher of righteousness, that he should at some 
period of his life have been grievously unrighteous. 
The man who can relate the darkest and most odious 
passages of vice in his own history; the man who 
has been most offensively immoral at some period 
of his past life ; is thought to have the best warrant 
for "trusting in himself that he is righteous," if only 
he has started a new course, and is striving to live 
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. 

If such a view were well founded, then blessed 
would be the most abandoned and wicked. Blessed 
would they be whose acquaintance with all forms of 
sin was the most thorough ; whose knowledge of 
evil was the most extensive and profound; whose 
lips had most freely blasphemed; whose excesses 
had been the most notorious; whose feet had even 
been swift to the ways of impurity and crime. We 
may pity then that parent who, with unwearied dili- 
gence, is striving to guard his children from the con- 
tamination of evil; who is carefully instilling into 
them good principles; who is watching the daily 
formation of their characters with prayerful solici- 
tude; and has no more ardent desire than this, that 
as was the case with God their Saviour, they may 
grow in favor with God and man. For what is such 
an individual doing, if the theory we are consider- 
ing be correct? He is actually preventing his chil- 
dren, so far as in him lies, from the possibility of 
having a good hope through grace. If he should 
succeed in keeping them unspotted from the world 

19 



214 



SERMONS, 



(which, by the way, we are told, is an essential part 
of true and nndefiled religion); if he should so train 
them up in the way they should go, that when they 
come to be of age, they shall be constrained to say, 
We never were profane; we never were dishonest; 
we never lied; we never neglected prayer; but we 
have served the Lord from our youth, and believed 
in and obeyed our Saviour, as far back as memory 
can carry us. If such should be his success; those 
children never having experienced what in their 
case, of course, would be impossible — a violent turn- 
ing from sin to righteousness; must ever be in pain- 
ful doubt as to their condition before God ; must 
ever want that boldness and courage and ability to 
resist temptation, which might have been theirs, if 
only they had, in past times, been immoral and 
wicked. 

But whatever may be plausibly said in favor of 
such a notion — and no opinion is too absurd to find 
abettors — something may always be plead in defence 
of even the most extravagant sentiments; whatever 
may be said in favor of the notion before us, it is 
plainly condemned by the text: " Blessed is the 
man that walketh not, or (as they are renderecT in 
the Prayer-Book translation of the Psalms), hath not 
walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and hath not 
stood in the* way of sinners, and hath not sat in the 
seat of the scornful." The idea is clearly implied, 
that it is good never to have known the ways of un- 
righteousness ; to have had no personal acquaintance 
with evil; to have been kept entirely from the path 
of the destroyer. He is pronounced " blessed" who, 



THE ADVANTAGES OF EARLY PURITY. 



215 



as lie surveys his past life, sees no dark passages, 
through which he neither feared God nor regarded 
man; who can call to mind no time when the wicked 
were his chosen companions ; who is grieved by the 
remembrance of no season when his delight was in 
cursing, and as a scoffer against his Saviour and his 
God, he gloried in his shame. 

Think you that Peter ever rejoiced, that he had 
once "denied the Lord that bought him?" Think 
you that he did not to his dying day carry as a heavy 
burden upou his sensitive, penitent spirit, the re- 
membrance of that sad night, when, with cursing 
and swearing, he said, " I know not the man?" Yea, 
while he was exceedingly comforted by his faith in 
" the Lamb of Gocl that taketh away the sins of the 
world;" while he gloried in that blood which cleans- 
eth from all sin; could he have rolled back the tide 
of time, and lived over the night in which his Mas- 
ter was betrayed, he would have given none occa- 
sion for such a record of ingratitude as now defaces 
his history. No advantage which he can be sup- 
posed to have derived from the knowledge of evil, 
acquired by his lamentable fall, ever took the sting 
from the thought of his baseness. That he was not 
reconciled to his act; nor made to reflect with satis- 
faction upon its commission ; seems evident from 
the affecting request of his last hour. For esteem- 
ing himself unworthy to suffer just as his Saviour 
had suffered, he desired that he might be crucified 
with his head downward. Thus, as it were, by the 
very humiliation of his posture in death, saying to 
all after generations, "Blessed is the man that hath 



216 



SERMONS. 



not walked in the counsel of the ungodly; nor stood 
in the way of sinners; and hath not sat in the seat 
of the scornful." 

Of all others, he who has feared the Lord from 
his youth; arid with conscientious diligence kept 
himself unspotted from the world; who has ever 
remembered " evil communications corrupt good 
manners;" and has exercised himself to have al- 
ways a conscience void of offence towards God — to- 
wards man; of all others, he will approach nearest 
to our Saviour's description of those to whom per- 
tains the promise, "they shall see God," even "the 
pure in heart." He will most resemble our first pa- 
rents, ere yet the image of God, in which they were 
made had been defaced; ere yet, under the frown of 
their Maker, and amidst the desolations of a fallen 
nature, they had reaped the bitter poisonous harvest 
of the kuowledge of evil. Says St. Paul, "Brethren, 
be not children in understanding; howbeit in malice 
be ye children;" and in another place his language 
is, " but I would have you wise unto that which is 
good, and simple concerning evil." The less we have 
known of wickedness in our own experience; the 
more pure in heart and obedient in life we have been 
kept by the grace of God ; the better is it, whatever our 
circumstances, for ourselves. It is not a Christian 
spirit which can glory, or take satisfaction, in the 
shame of past wickedness. Every such remem- 
brance should but kindle afresh the flame of godly 
sorrow; make us abhor ourselves for our ingratitude 
and guilt; and awaken into livelier exercise that 
faith in the atoning sacrifice of the cross, to which 



THE ADVANTAGES OF EARLY PURITY. 217 

the promise of forgiveness is so mercifully and freely 
made. 

When it is remembered that in the Books, out of 
which we must be judged, stand recorded every 
word and work; that there are pictured the slightest 
shades as well as the darker colors of all past guilt; 
and that though nothing shall be brought forward 
thence to the condemnation of those, who shall have 
made their peace with God, through Jesus Christ 
our Lord ; all must come to light in the scrutiny of 
the day of judgment: when all this is remembered; 
truly he has need to bless the Lord whose past life 
has been free from gross sins; and who has all along, 
with whatever occasional offences and shortcomings, 
been diligent to show himself approved unto God. 
The pure and heavenly-minded John, "the disciple 
whom Jesus loved," and the poor, penitent thief, 
will both be saved by grace. In that transporting 
anthem of praise, in which they both shall join; both 
will ascribe salvation to the Lamb; both will confess 
themselves redeemed by His blood. But when the 
resurrection morn shall come; and "all that are in 
their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of Man, 
and shall come forth;" who would not rather be the 
Apostle, than the malefactor? who would not rather 
meet the record of a long, unstained and useful life ; 
than of a life defiled by guilt and crime ; even though 
pardon waited on its closing hour? 

But few, alas, know the blessedness of having never 
gone astray; of having been like Timothy, who, from 
a child, was a true servant of the living God. Few 
can look back upon lives stained by no long-persisted 

19* 



218 



SERMONS. 



in offences against their Lord. With most, the years 
of childhood, youth, and even mature age have "been 
marked by utter heedlessness of God and Christ ; by 
sad indifference to all religious obligations; by world- 
liness, and thoughtlessness of death and a judgment 
to come. Many must needs look back on darker 
passages. Years marked by gross vice stand prom- 
inent amidst the memories of the past. Years, when 
profanity and sensual indulgence sent up, day after 
day, a challenge to God's vengeance. Years when 
mind was dimmed and clouded, and the whole man 
brutalized; when injuries were inflicted that never 
can be perfectly repaired; when influences were ex- 
erted that never can be fully counteracted, but are 
still working on to evil, in their lamentable effects. 
It is most sad to think how many pages of brief hu- 
man lives, in the Book of God's remembrance, are 
crowded with records of transgressors: how many 
worse than wasted days, and months, and years, have 
written there, their testimony against the sons and 
daughters of men. 

Since then so many cannot know the blessedness 
of an unblemished past; of a life-long devotedness to 
every duty; a life-long avoidance of all evil — what 
remains but that each should strive to have as little 
of the future darkened by sin as possible? The fu- 
ture, whatever of it may be in store for you, is yet 
pure and undefiled. You may write upon it what 
you will. You may cause it to be a witness of your 
repentance unto life; of an entire change in your 
mode of conduct; of such fidelity to Him who loved 
you and died for your salvation ; as may yet shower 



THE ADVANTAGES OF EARLY PURITY. 219 

upon your pathway, the joys of a good conscience, 
and the hope of God's acceptance in the day of 
Christ's appearing. The Lord being your helper, 
you may lay hold upon the blessedness which the 
Psalmist's words describe, by making the character 
your own, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in 
the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way 
of sinners; nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." 
Blessed is such an one, for no longer does the wrath 
of God abide upon him. He was condemned al- 
ready, all the while he was walking in the way of his 
own heart and in the sight of his own eyes. He 
needed but the severing of the frail, attenuated 
thread of life, and he was ruined for eternity. His 
doom was sealed, a doom of indescribable wretched- 
ness, for all the unwasting ages of his future life. 
But no sooner did he come to himself and sorrowful 
for past guilt, resolve upon amendment; praying 
God's forgiveness for the past, for Christ's sake; and 
being baptized for the remission of his sins: no 
sooner did he thus enter upon the narrow way that 
leadeth unto life, than he ceased to be under con- 
demnation. Thenceforward, so long as he should be 
true to the vow, promise, and profession of his high 
calling in Christ Jesus ; he would be at peace with 
God; and be daily growing meet for the rich inher- 
itance of the saints. Blessed is such an one, for he 
has passed from death unto life; and from the power 
of Satan unto God. Though his work, the great 
work of his salvation, will be finished only with his 
life, it is begun. His lot would not be cast with the 
foolish virgins, even should the cry now be made — 



220 



SERMONS. 



"Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet 
him." 

The variety of expressions used by the Psalmist 
in the text, " w alketh not in the counsel of the un- 
godly, . . . standeth not in the way of sinners, . . . 
sitteth not in the seat of the scornful;" intimates to 
us, that there is a gradation in wickedness. That he 
who would not persist in evil courses, or commence 
a scoffer at the mystery of godliness ; must have no 
fellowship with bad men. For it is impossible for 
one who forsakes the right path to say whither he 
shall wander; and few when they begin "to walk in 
the counsel of the ungodly," propose finally to "sit 
down in the seat of the scornful." Blessed then is 
such an one as the Psalmist describes, because he is 
no longer exposed to the danger which threatens all 
others, of being hardened through the deceitfulness 
of sin. The work has ceased, which before was ren- 
dering him less and less disposed to take thought for 
the things of eternity ; and which in the end would 
have caused incurable "hardness of heart and con- 
tempt of God's word and commandments." So long 
as convictions of duty are slighted and known obli- 
gations violated; so long must there be a continual 
approach towards that state intimated in the pas- 
sage, " Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the 
leopard his spots ? Then may ye also do good, that 
are accustomed to do evil." We have heard of per- 
sons building themselves up in a wall, that they 
might perish for want of air and food: and they who 
allow evil habits to get dominion over them, are 
doing a similar work; are provoking the displeasure, 



THE ADVANTAGES OF EARLY PURITY. 



221 



and rendering themselves the certain objects of His 
unquenchable wrath, who is able to destroy both soul 
and body in hell. 

Blessed then is the individual who in God's 
strength interrupts the reign of evil principles and 
practices, and of indifference to his Saviour's claims; 
and sets about in earnest, the work of preparing to 
meet his God, and qualify himself for the enjoy- 
ments of a better world. Blessed is he, for whatever 
his experience of temptation and trial, his end shall 
be peace. Beautiful and most true are the words of 
a writer wise as good; tracing such an one to the 
setting of the sun of life. " Thus did he walk in 
happiness, and sorrow was a stranger to his soul. 
The light of affection sunned his heart; the tear of 
the grateful bedewed his feet. He put his hand with 
constancy to good; and angels knew him as a broth- 
er; and the busy satellites of evil, trembled as at 
God's ally. He used his wealth as a wise steward ; 
making him friends for futurity. He bent his learn- 
ing to religion, and religion was with him at the last. 
For I saw him after many days, when the time of his 
release was come: and I longed for a congregated 
world, to behold the dying saint." 

Be it your aim to seek such blessedness. To be in 
penitence, and faith, and godliness of life, His fol- 
lowers and servants, who bought you with His blood, 
that when He shall meet you on His judgment throne, 
His salutation may be, "Come ye blessed of my 
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from 
the foundation of the world!" 



SERMON XVI. 



AN APPEAL TO MEN. 
And of men, not a few. — Acts, xvii. 12. 

When we reflect that the Holy Scriptures were 
written by men, who were guided by the Spirit of 
God, in their choice of the facts and circumstances 
to be recorded, we must suppose that even the mi- 
nutest of those facts and circumstances, has an inter- 
est and importance which will amply repay our most 
serious and reverential attention and regard. It may 
reasonably be expected to contain or suggest valua- 
ble instruction. '"All Scripture is given by inspira- 
tion of God," andzs profitable, one part for one pur- 
pose, another for another; portions, at first sight, 
and to hasty readers, with but little, if any signifi- 
cance, adapted, when properly understood, and legit- 
imately applied, to promote the advancement of the 
individual in "pure religion and undefiled." We 
have in the text a brief but most interesting and in- 
structive notice of the success which attended the 
apostolic labors of Paul and Silas. 

It was at Berea; in the synagogue of the Jews, 
that they had preached Jesus Christ and Him cruci- 
fied; that they had proclaimed Jesus of Nazareth to 
be that very deliverer, whom their own Scriptures 
( 222 ) 



AN APPEAL TO MEX. 



223 



had taught G-od's ancient people to expect, and 
eagerly look for. And this announcement was not 
received, as it had "been in many other places, with 
a spirit of obstinate infidelity, of anger and wrath. 
The conduct of the Jews of Berea, after they had 
listened to the preaching of the Christian Apostles, 
is worthy to be admired and imitated among our- 
selves. They might have been seen retiring from the 
synagogue, to their own homes, with an aspect of 
deep thoughtfulness upon their countenances, revolv- 
ing in their minds what they had heard. Their at- 
tention was not suffered to be withdrawn from the 
momentous truths which had been delivered, by any 
personal peculiarities of the Apostles. These Apos- 
tles had such peculiarities, St. Paul especially. From 
several passages in his history and writings, there is 
ground for the inference that his appearance and 
manner of speech were very much against him. 
Those who were anxious to hinder the success of his 
efforts, he himself tells us, laid great stress upon this, 
saying, "His bodily presence is weak, and his speech 
contemptible."' But the Bereans, with a wisdom 
deserving of the highest commendation, took no note 
of these unimportant matters. "Wnether the Apos- 
tle's bodily presence was weak, or his speech con- 
temptible ; were questions which seemed not to have 
had sufficient interest for them to, at all, engage 
their attention ; least of all, to divert it from the 
heavenly truths which had been communicated to 
them. They were neither prevented from listening 
seriously and devoutly to preaching, which was prob- 
ably characterized by somewhat that was painful or 



224 



SERMONS, 



unpleasant in its manner; nor from remembering 
and dwelling upon its own intrinsic excellence. All 
this we gather from the high commendation recorded 
of them, " These were more noble than those in 
Thessalonica, in that they received the word with 
all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures 
daily whether these things were so." They had been 
told that Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pon- 
tius Pilate, was indeed the Mighty God, the Prince 
of Peace, predicted in the Old Testament Scriptures ; 
the seed of the woman, who should bruise the ser- 
pent's head ; the seed of their father Abraham ; in 
whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed. 
They had been pointed to Him, as the true Lamb of 
God, that taketh away the sins of the world. And 
with as little delay as possible; with serious, earnest, 
candid minds, they sat down to the study of their 
Bibles to ascertain whether indeed these things were 
so. The record that follows, we might naturally have 
expected. The state of mind and behavior of the 
Bereans could not but lead to so happy a result. 
"Therefore" because they received the word with 
all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures 
daily whether these things were so, "therefore 
many of them believed, also, of honorable women, 
which were Greeks; and of men, not a few." 

We are not told, in general, that great success at- 
tended the labors of the Apostle; but the narrative 
specifies the particulars of that success, and among 
those particulars, one is, that "not a few men be- 
lieved." The Apostles' words took effect upon a 
large number of the male portion of their auditory. 



AN APPEAL TO MEN. 



225 



Many men received the word with all readiness of 
mind, many men searched the Scriptures daily 
whether these things were so; and, as a consequence, 
many men helieved in the Lord Jesus Christ to the 
saving of their souls. It would seem that these men, 
like the honorable women mentioned, were Greeks; 
and their behavior presented a marked contrast to 
that of their fellow-countrymen to whom St. Paul 
preached at Athens. Some of them mocked when 
they heard of the resurrection of the dead, and 
others said, "¥e will hear thee again of this matter." 
But those at Berea neither mocked, nor procrasti- 
nated. They listened with respectful attention ; they 
examined for themselves with candor and diligence ; 
not satisfied with a single, hasty perusal of the writ- 
ten word of God, to which even inspired heralds of 
the truth referred them ; they searched the Scrip- 
tures daily whether these things were so. 

And it was acting like men to pursue such a course. 
Men have been endowed by God with reason. They 
will be held to a strict account by Him for the use of 
their reason. If, in consequence of inattention, of 
negligence, they fail to come to a knowledge of the 
truth, He will not hold them guiltless. Says St. 
Paul, "When I was a child I spake as a child, I un- 
derstood as a child, I thought as a child ; but when I 
became a man, I put away childish things." How 
like children would the Greeks at Berea have acted; 
if, when there had been brought to their notice cer- 
tain facts, claiming to be of the highest and most 
lasting importance to them, they had put them aside, 
in eager interest for matters of comparatively inferior 

20 



226 



SERMON?. 



moment. But they showed a far different spirit. In 
understanding they were men. They brought no 
reproach upon their manhood, by slighting the claims 
and calls of God, their Saviour. When Christ was 
preached unto them, as God made man and crucified 
for us; when He was pointed out as a long predicted 
Redeemer, whose name is the only name given under 
heaven whereby we must be saved; they pondered 
the question, deeply, patiently, seriously, are these 
things so? And when, by God's blessing on their 
candid, faithful inquiries, they were satisfied; they 
believed; believed in the then despised and rejected 
Jesus; and were grafted into His church, and be- 
came true and living members of the same. "Not 
a few of men" competent to examine and decide, 
and yet under peculiar temptations to neglect the 
solemn obligation ; not a few of them were then made 
wise unto salvation. And it hath been so through 
all the ages of the Church's history. Of men, not a 
few have bowed to the sceptre of the Lord Jesus. 
Of men, not a few have clung to Him by faith; and 
counted the hopes of His gospel their choicest treas- 
ures. Of men, not a few have said, in their inmost 
hearts; in the vigor of. health, and in the distress of 
sickness ; and in the immediate anticipation of death, 

"Ashamed of Jesus, empty pride, 
I'll boast a Saviour crucified; 
And oh, may this "my portion be, 
My Saviour not ashamed of me!" 

And these men have not been merely the inferior 
part of the race. Take away from the pages of history 



AN APPEAL TO MEN. 



227 



all those who have believed and obeyed the gospel, in 
the various ages of the world, and how small a rem- 
nant would be left! Assemble in one group, those 
for whom mankind entertain the highest respect and 
the deepest reverence; who have contributed most 
largely to the promotion of human interests and hu- 
man happiness; and who were humble-minded fol- 
lowers of God manifest in the flesh; and how vast 
and august would be the assembly ! The intellect of 
the world; the morality of the world, have, in largest 
proportion, been on the side of the glorious gospel 
of the blessed God. Those who have best deserved 
the name of men, have surnamed themselves " by 
the name which is above every name, the name of 
Jesus, at which, eventually, every knee shall bow 
and every tongue confess." And these men who 
have followed Christ, have done so under every va- 
riety of circumstances and in the face of all possible 
hindrances and temptations and discouragements. 
With the cares of state; of public life; of most varied 
and perplexing business, soliciting their thoughts to 
dwell exclusively on the life that now is; they have 
yet been able to look unto Jesus; to tread in the 
steps of His most holy life ; to sanctify their whole 
pursuits, by practically adopting the inspired maxim, 
" Whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the 
name of the Lord Jesus." Of the vast multitudes 
of men, now awaiting in the paradise of God, the 
coming of the day of judgment, how many, through 
much tribulation, have entered into the kingdom of 
God ! How truly has it been to them a resting from 
the most arduous labors, when He who holds the 



228 



SERMONS. 



keys of death and hell, opened to them the door of 
escape from this sinful and weary world ! 

When the record was made concerning those of 
Berea, "and of men, not a few believed;" a state of 
things existed widely different from that which exists 
now. Then Christianity had but recently been intro- 
duced into the world. Then, it was not the common 
belief that Jesus Christ was indeed the Son of God 
and the Saviour of the world. People had not been 
conversant with these great truths even from their 
youth up. But it was bringing some new and strange 
things to their ears, when the announcement was 
made, that He who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was 
" God made man for us," ''the hope of all the ends of 
the earth." The reverse of all this is true now. We 
have been accustomed to look upon the Holy Scrip- 
tures as indeed the word of God, from our earliest 
years. We have been brought up amidst the serv- 
ices and institutions of the Christian faith. We have 
looked unto Jesus as truly all that He claims to be; 
the Son of God; the one great sacrifice for sin; the 
intercessor at the right hand of the Father; the or- 
dained Judge of quick and dead. His sacred his- 
tory, recorded on the inspired page, was one of the 
first lessons of our childhood. 

How strange that under such circumstances, it 
should almost have ceased to be the case that "of 
men, not a few believed." Look at the groups which, 
when God's table is spread, approach to take the 
Holy Sacrament to their comfort. How small the 
proportion of men! A few mingle with the throng, 
who do this in remembrance of the precious death 



AN APPEAL TO MEN. 



229 



and sacrifice of their Master and only Saviour. But 
the many keep aloof; as if it were no place for them; 
as if it were a duty not incumbent upon them. The 
daughters of the Lord Almighty, in their youth, 
their maturity, and their age, draw nigh to Him that 
He may draw nigh, to them. They bring forth the 
fruits of the Spirit, and in life and death are sus- 
tained by the grace and the hopes of the gospel. 
But the young men, those of riper age, and those in 
the decline of life; what multitudes of them walk in 
the broad road ! How few are seen seeking first the 
kingdom of God and His righteousuess ! You shall 
behold the wife and the mother left to serve alone ; 
while the husband and father does but promise here- 
after to take thought for eternity. The daughter is 
suffered to lead where the father should have set the 
example. The sister, anxious to serve the Lord 
Christ and to save her soul alive, is constrained with 
sorrow to remember that her brother cares for none 
of these things. 

Said the lost soul of the rich man, " I pray Thee, 
therefore, Father that Thou wouldest send him to 
my father's house, for I have five brethren that he 
may testify unto them, lest they also come into this 
place of torment." How sad a spectacle did that 
family present! Six brothers, united to each other by 
the bonds of strong affection, but forgetful of God, 
forgetful of a coming eternity, intent only upon the 
riches and the pleasures of this fleeting life. One of 
them dies; the rich brother; whose sagachrvin busi- 
ness; whose success in life, whose accumulations, 
made all the others look up to him with pride and 

20* 



230 



SERMONS. 



admiration ; the rich brother dies. He is cut off in 
his sins, without space for repentance; he is hurried 
into that world where riches profit not: God bore 
with his impenitence and disobedience and worldli- 
ness, with great long-suffering ; but at length issued 
the awful fiat, " Cut him down, why cumbereth he 
the ground ? " "What a shock was that decease to his 
five brothers! How dreadful seemed the vacancy it 
made ! With what deep grief did they gather around 
the grave of that elder brother! W x hat keen pangs 
shot through their hearts as the sight of the elegant 
and costly wardrobe, the massive, luxurious furni- 
ture ; the multiplied means and appliances of self-in- 
dulgence, brought up before their minds that brother 
whom they had taken as their model of worldly wis- 
dom. And did that bereavement profit them? Did 
the diminished circle see in that stroke of death, 
which had fallen in their midst, the handwriting of 
God, as it were, inscribing for their learning the 
warning, " Be ye also ready, for in a day and an hour 
that you think not of, the Son of man cometh?" 
They had lost a brother, a brother who had died in 
insensibility or despair. Did it make them consider 
their latter end? Did it inspire them with a sincere 
desire that their sins might be done away by God's 
mercy and their pardon sealed in heaven before they 
should "go hence and be no more seen?" Did it 
occur to them to ask, "What is it to our brother 
now that, while on earth, he was clothed in purple 
and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day?" 
Alas, it would seem that their sorrow was not "that 
godly sorrow which worketh repentance unto salva- 



AN APPEAL TO MEN. 



231 



tion, not to be repented of." Their deceased brother, 
who knew them thoroughly, who knew what sort of 
men his own example had helped to make them ; he 
felt assured that they would liye a life of worldliness 
and sin, as he had done; that, notwithstanding all 
their regrets for his death; they would be surprised, 
utterly unprepared to meet their God, as he had been. 
Unable himself to warn them not to tread in his 
misguiding steps, he desired that a messenger from 
the dead might do so, lest they also should come 
into that place of torment. 

And of such circles of brothers, all going the 
wrong way; the elder teaching the younger, by their 
examples, lessons which, after death, they would give 
a world to have those younger brothers unlearn ; of 
such circles of brothers, how many are there now ! 
What community, what congregation but will pre- 
sent even many of them! Their mothers, their sis- 
ters, may have sought the Lord and be endeavoring 
to walk in His way ; or having done so, may have 
died the death of the righteous; but they have cho- 
sen the path, the end whereof are the ways of ever- 
lasting death. They have chosen the path which 
leads away from God, away from Christ who died to 
save them, down to that fearful place of torment, 
echoing with the vain appeal of a brother's ruined 
soul. 

Fathers, brothers, husbands, men! what is there 
in your case that makes it fitting so few of you 
should seek the Lord while He may be found, and 
call upon Him "while He is near?" Have you not 
souls to be saved, sins to be pardoned, sinful natures 



232 



SERMONS. 



to be sanctified? Is there not to you an hour of 
death approaching when you can be at peace, only if 
you have hope in Him who is our peace, the Lord who 
suffered the just for the unjust to bring us to God? 
Is there no heaven that you may win ; no hell into 
the awful miseries of which, impenitence may plunge 
you ? Can the pursuits, to which you give yourself 
with such whole-souled devotion, make any provi- 
sion for that eternity which stretches out, beyond 
the narrow confines of this present life? Your busi- 
ness may prosper; your industry be largely rewarded ; 
your ventures may bring you great gain ; but what 
of that, if, meanwhile, you shall have made God 
your enemy, and debarred yourselves from all par- 
ticipation in the riches of His mercy in Christ Jesus? 
You may obtain the praise of men ; you may rise to 
positions of eminence ; but what of that, if God ab- 
hors you as ungrateful, sinful and rebellious beings, 
whom His justice and holiness must cast into outer 
darkness ? You may live many days, and rejoice in 
them all, but what cause will you have to tremble at 
the announcement which your own sense and con- 
science tell you is even so? " It is appointed unto 
men once to die, and after that, the judgment." 

"I write unto you, young men, because ye are 
strong," as for evil, so also for good. What an in- 
estimable blessing to society is a young man, who 
is a true and living member of Christ and the 
church; who is honestly and earnestly intent upon 
pleasing God his Saviour, and preparing for that 
rest which remaineth for the people of God; whose 
religion shines out in all his life, making him, in all 



AN APPEAL TO MEN. 



203 



relations and in all circumstances, an example of 
whatsoever things are holy and of good report! But 
mainly for his own sake, should the young man, 
should all men, take thought for eternity, and seek 
to live a life of faith in God's dear Son; such a life 
as will lead to the fulfilment of the wish — " Let me 
die the death of the righteous, and let my last end 
be like his." And if only the example of the men 
of Berea be followed, this will be so. "They heard 
the word with all readiness of mind — they searched 
the Scriptures daily whether these things were so." 
What they heard in the synagogue continued to be 
the subject of their serious reflections when they 
went away from it. The preaching of the truth, as 
it is in Jesus, led them carefully to read that holy 
volume, which, by God's blessing, can make us wise 
unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ 
Jesus. 

Is this the case with you? Are the men who 
statedly assemble here, like the men of Berea? Do 
they hear the word with all readiness of mind? and, 
in the intervals between the public services of God's 
house, do they often read that sacred book, which 
contains what is of infinitely greater value to them 
than anything else which can possibly solicit their 
attention ? If they did ; if they would ; vain would 
be the efforts of Satan to snatch away the word out 
of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. 
We should quickly have among us men, more anx- 
ious for the praise of God than the praise of men ; 
more in earnest to lay up treasures in heaven than 
to lay up for themselves treasures upon earth; more 



234 



SERMONS. 



devoted to the Great Captain of their salvation than 
any follower ever was to any earthly leader. We 
should no longer behold men acting with all the 
thoughtlessness and heedlessness of children ; sport- 
ing carelessly on the brink of endless woe ; occupy- 
ing themselves with trifles to the neglect of interests 
of infinite moment; persevering in the neglect of 
God's calls and warnings, until precipitated into a 
destruction without remedy. 

If one class of the congregation has been ad- 
dressed, it is because that class, from various circum- 
stances, is in peculiar danger of forgetting the Sa- 
viour's warning " Take heed, lest at any time your 
hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunken- 
ness and cares of this life, and so that day come upon 
you unawares." There is peculiar clanger in the 
case of men that sudden death, death for which 
they have made no preparation, may cut them off 
in their sins. We would, indeed, that it may ap- 
pear, when God shall call us all to account, that the 
mothers and daughters, the wives and sisters, of the 
congregation may be found written in the Lamb's 
Book of Life. They have their cares, they have 
their hindrances. They have their temptations "not 
to remember the latter end." But mercifully shielded 
from the fiercer and more severe temptations of pub- 
lic life; they may, by God's help, the more easily, 
as we find, in fact, they do more frequently, give 
their hearts to God their Saviour, and serve Him 
truly all the days of their life. They may choose that 
better part which shall not be taken away. Let it 



AN APPEAL TO MEN. 



235 



be so with the others. God will give them more 
grace in proportion to their special necessities. And 
when from the judgment-seat of Christ, the history 
of the services of this house of God, with their re- 
sults, shall be unfolded, may it appear, "that of men 
not a few" believed to the saving of their souls! 



SERMON XVII. 



ST. PAUL AS A PASTOK. 

Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to 
be left at Athens alone. — I. Thess. iii. 1. 

When the Apostle Paul, under God's direction, 
landed upon the continent of Europe, to preach there 
the unsearchable riches of Christ; he bestowed his 
labors, almost exclusively upon its cities. There, 
were congregated masses of population into which 
most easily, most effectively, and with the prospect 
of most extensive influence, the little leaven of the 
Gospel could be introduced. 

The second of these important places visited by 
the Apostle, was the great sea-port town of Thessa- 
lonica. The mass of the community consisted of 
Greeks, who, of course, were nearly all heathen; 
people, who. if they professed to have any religion 
at all, were believers in, and worshippers of idols. 
Besides these, there was an infusion of Jewish popu- 
lation, attracted there by purposes of trade and com- 
merce. St. Paul began his labors among this latter 
class, making their synagogue the first scene of his 
preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Three 
successive Sabbath-days, he appeared there, and rea- 
soned with them out of their own Scriptures — the 
( 236) 



ST. PAUL AS A PASTOR. 



237 



Old Testament Scriptures; endeavoring to convince 
them, that according to the prophecies there recorded, 
it was clear that Christ must needs have suffered and 
risen from the dead; and declaring that Jesus of 
Nazareth was the very Being whom those Scriptures 
taught them to expect. Doubtless, in the interval, 
between those Sabbaths, he as diligently employed 
himself, privately, in the same work. Probably 
about a month was thus spent, in efforts, public and 
private, to bring these Jews and heathen, to the 
knowledge of the truth; fully to persuade them to 
become Christians. 

About a month of faithful ministerial labor was 
bestowed upon that populous and influential city. 
And what was the result ? One, which in the course 
of a few months electrified the whole of that south- 
eastern part of continental Europe. Some of the 
Jews believed. But the most decided, extensive and 
remarkable effects, were produced in the other part 
of the population, the Greeks ; " They turned from 
idols to serve the living God and to wait for His Son 
from heaven." In the course of a month a Christian 
community, embodying not only the theistic Jews, 
but the idolatrous Greeks, sprung up, as if by magic, 
in the very heart of a great heathen city. All 
through Macedonia, and all through Greece, the re- 
port of this astounding occurrence, spread with the 
utmost rapidity. 

Eo one can possibly appreciate the feelings with 
which St. Paul must have regarded this result, who 
has not had personal experience of that tenderness 
of affection, with which the heart of the Christian 

21 



238 



SERMONS. 



minister is animated towards those, whom his labors 
have, by God's blessing, brought out of darkness 
into light, and from the power of Satan unto God. 
One such case stirs the heart of the watchman for 
souls, to its very depths. To know of but one, who 
has surrendered his doubts, who has come to him- 
self, who 7 sees with the eye of the heart, that he is a 
sinner, and that Christ is the only and all-sufficient Sa- 
viour : to know of but one whom sickness or sorrow, 
whom God's truth or God's grace, have fully per- 
suaded to be a Christian ; this is happiness indeed, 
to the heart burdened with a sense of ministerial re- 
sponsibility, and longing for the everlasting salva- 
tion of the sinful, and endangered ones for whom 
Christ died. 

But here was, not one, but a great multitude; per- 
sons of all classes of society, even the highest; male 
and female, abandoning their Jewish unbelief, and 
their heathen idolatry, and, in penitence and faith, 
being baptized in the name of the Crucified. A con- 
gregation gathered in a month, gathered in a heathen 
sea-port, gathered from the midst of unbelief and 
superstition, made up of people, who were sincere 
and in earnest to serve the Lord Christ; a congrega- 
tion made up of people, of whom the Apostle had 
good hope, that they would be faithful unto death, 
would be his crowns of rejoicing in the day of judg- 
ment ! 

How naturally must the Apostle have desired to 
make a long sojourn, in that scene of his so great 
success ; to remain and watch over that infant con- 
gregation, till by further instruction and guidance 



ST. PAUL AS A PASTOR. 



239 



its members should have been rendered steadfast and 
immovable. But he was not permitted to do so. 
The tender ties which had been formed, and which 
bound him to these Thessalonian converts, were to 
be the occasion of the deepest mental and spiritual 
anxiety and distress. It very soon became neces- 
sary that he should quit the city, and leave these 
young, newly-made Christians, to all the fearful perils 
of the contest they must needs wage against the 
world, the flesh, and the devil. Once again, within 
a short time, he endeavored to return to Thessalonica, 
but without success. The course of circumstances 
he could not control, overruled by God's Providence 
for the wider extension of his apostolic labors, car- 
ried him farther and farther away, from his beloved 
Thessalonians. 

He first went to a place called Berea, about sixty 
miles distant ; whence, after a brief but successful 
effort to make Christ known, he was withdrawn, and 
reaching some point on the sea-coast, embarked for 
Athens. But though wherever he went, he ceased 
not to preach Jesus Christ; though at every onward 
stage of his progress in Europe, he still found him- 
self in the midst of heathen darkness and supersti- 
tion and impurity; and was impelled by all his 
deepest convictions and most ardent feelings to la- 
bor for the illumination and the salvation of those 
around him, he yet bore in his memory, and upon 
his heart, the new-made Christians of Thessalonica. 

We have a touching intimation of the deep anx- 
iety and the warm affection he felt towards them in 
the words, " Wherefore when we could no longer 



240 



SERMONS. 



forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens 
alone." Weeks had elapsed since he had been forced 
to quit Thessalonica, and no tidings had yet reached 
him how the new converts were conducting them- 
selves in their novel and most trying circumstances, 
and his desire to know something of them had been 
so strong that he could no longer endure the painful 
suspense. It was a great trial to be left alone in that 
populous heathen city; to send away from him the 
Christian companion, his brother and minister of God 
and fellow-laborer in the gospel of Christ; just at a 
time when the presence and companionship and co- 
operation of such a man could do so much to cheer 
and sustain him under the labors he must undertake, 
and the dangers he must encounter, in the effort to 
introduce the Gospel of Christ into Athens. It may 
be taken as a sure indication of the intensity of St. 
Paul's solicitude about the Thessalonians, that he 
was willing to bear the dreariness of that solitude, 
that for their sakes he was ready to make so great a 
sacrifice of his personal comfort, " Wherefore when 
we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be 
left at Athens alone, and sentTimotheus, our brother 
and minister of God and fellow-laborer in the gos- 
pel of Christ, to establish you and to comfort you 
concerning your faith ; that no man should be moved 
by these afflictions " (those consequent upon their 
becoming Christians): "for yourselves know that 
we are appointed thereunto. For, verily, when we 
were with you, we told you before that we should 
suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye 
know. For this cause, when I could no longer for- 



ST. PAUL AS A PASTOR. 



241 



bear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means 
the tempter have tempted you, and our labor be in 
vain." It was a season of loneliness and depression 
and most painful suspense, that sojourn in heathen 
Athens while Timotheus was hurrying back to Thes- 
salonica, to confirm the converts there in their new 
and holy faith; and to gain for St. Paul, if it were 
possible, tidings that might relieve his anxiety and 
comfort his heart. 

JSTever did any one, absent in a foreign land from 
home and friends, long more earnestly for news from 
home, for good tidings from kindred dear, than did 
this man of tender sensibility, for an assurance that 
all was well with his Thessalonian children — that 
Satan had not got an advantage over those who were 
so newly released from his hard bondage ; lest they 
who had believed in God were careful to maintain 
good works. Hear how he describes his feelings on 
the receipt of the good tidings brought back by his 
messenger : "But now, when Timotheus came from 
you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your 
faith and charity, and that ye have good remem- 
brance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as 
we also to see you. Therefore, brethren, we are 
comforted over you in all our affliction and distress 
by your faith. For now we live, if ye stand fast in 
the Lord. For what thanks can we render to God 
again for you for all the joy wherewith we joy, for 
your sakes, before our God; night and day, praying 
exceedingly that we might see your face, and might 
perfect that which is lacking in your faith." The 
relief and gladness which would be afforded by hear- 

21* 



242 



SERMONS. 



ing that a beloved relative away from us, who had 
been hanging between life and death, was so far 
restored that his perfect recovery might be expected ; 
the relief and gladness afforded by such news, may 
give us some insight into the Apostle's feelings re- 
specting the recovered Thessalonians. How glad he 
was to hear that they were running well, that they 
were true to the Saviour they had confessed ; that 
there was good hope they would lay hold on ever- 
lasting life! And the measure of his gladness may 
show us how deep had been his anxiety, when, no 
longer able to forbear, he thought it good to be at 
Athens alone. 

Alone at Athens! alone, depressed and anxious, 
yet no more idle in that city of great necessities, than 
he had been at those he had previously visited. "With 
him, pastoral solicitude however deep, put no re- 
straint upon pastoral activity. Though the Thessa- 
lonian converts lay like a load upon his great heart, 
he did not suspend his toil, till the hoped-for tidings 
should lift that load off. "Now while Paul waited 
at Athens, his spirit was stirred within him, when 
he saw the city wholly given to idolatry" (full of 
idols). " Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with 
the Jews, and with the devout persons," those who 
had come under the influence of the Jewish religion, 
" and in the market," a sort of public square, " daily 
with them that met with him;" and there, and then, 
in that city built nobly on the Egean shore, "the 
eye of Greece," mother of arts and eloquence, then 
and there Christianity, and Paganism in its highest 
form of civilization, came into contact. " Certain phi- 



ST. PAUL AS A PASTOR. 



243 



losopliers of the Epicureans and Stoics encountered 
him, and some said, What will this babbler say? 
Other some, he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange 
gods; because he preached unto them Jesus and the 
resurrection. And they took him and brought him 
unto Areopagus." "Mars Hill, where the most awful 
court of judicature had sat from time immemorial, 
to pass sentence on the greatest criminals, and to 
decide the most solemn questions connected with 
religion." There, wisely taking the opportunity of 
conciliating his hearers, without compromising the 
truth, afforded by the altar he had observed, bearing 
the inscription "to the unknown God," he told them 
"whom therefore, ye ignorantly worship, Him de- 
clare I unto you," and closed that striking address 
with that solemn announcement, of such transcendant 
importance to every sinful, accountable being, " How- 
beit those times of ignorance God hath overlooked, 
but, now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. 
Because He hath appointed a day in the which He 
will judge the world in righteousness by that Man 
whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given as- 
surance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from 
the dead." 

He did not need the spur of known success to 
nerve his exertions in new fields and for new results. 
His inspiration was drawn, under the blessing of 
God's Holy Spirit, from the painful spectacle of igno- 
rance, superstition, spiritual destitution and sin, which 
met his view on every side. He was at Athens, 
alone; the solitary representative of that Gospel 
which is able to make men wise unto salvation; the 



244 



SERMONS. 



one minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, from whom 
that benighted, dying population must learn of 
" Him who only is able to save unto the uttermost 
all who come unto God by Him.; " and though in 
one sense, his heart was at Thessalonica, it was not 
so there, that it was not also in Athens, moved to its 
very depths, by all he saw there, dishonoring God, 
degrading God's creatures; and invoking the truth 
and grace of the Gospel to awaken, to enlighten, 
and to pacify the consciences of the dying sinners 
around him. 

He had reached Athens, led on from city to city, 
by providential conjunctions of circumstances, to ful- 
fil that work to which he had been beckoned, when 
in a vision by night on the coast of Asia, he had be- 
held an European, a man of Macedonia praying him, 
saying, " Come over into Macedonia and help us ! " 
Help us from the darkness of our ignorance; help 
us from the degradation of our superstitions ; help 
us from the awful power and dominion of our sins ; 
help us, that vile earth and miserable sinners we 
may rise to the wisdom and the purity and the hap- 
piness and the hope of children of God, by faith in 
Jesus Christ. And that pitiable appeal never faded 
from his thoughts. At every step of his progress in 
continental Europe he only saw more clearly, and 
felt more deeply how much need there was of God's 
help. And he never saw it more clearly, or felt it 
more deeply, than when with an aching heart, he be- 
held at Athens, the very focus of ancient and pa- 
gan civilization, the childish, degrading, demoral- 
izing idolatry that was all but universal there. A 



ST. PAUL AS A PASTOR. 



245 



man with, such worthy views of God; such a deep 
sense of the preciousness of Christ, such vital and 
vivid perceptions of the exceeding sinfulness of sin; 
with a mind so magnetized by the loadstone of the 
doctrine of an eternal judgment — oh! such a man 
must have felt that alone, or not alone ; with what- 
ever burden of anxiety about others, he must preach 
Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the Son of the liv- 
ing and true God; the Saviour of sinners, and the 
judge of the world; that in that dark and desolate 
Athens where, with all its cultivation, "Satan's seat 
was," sinners might be won to the obedience of 
Christ; and souls saved through Him with an ever- 
lasting salvation. 

We have then in the text, the spectacle of a Chris- 
tian minister, in his pastoral solicitude and his pas- 
toral activity ; willing to be left alone, for the love he 
bore towards those whom he had already brought to 
Christ; and filling up that season of loneliness with 
new and earnest labors for Christ and for the souls 
for whom He died. St. Paul, full of anxiety for his 
converts in Thessalonica, and full of earnestness and 
zeal to come to the Athenians in the fulness of the 
blessing of the gospel of Christ. He was moving 
onward, from point to point, in Southern Europe; 
the chief agent of the Saviour, for christianizing 
that important division of the world; increasing the 
burden of his cares and anxieties at every step ; and 
at every step widening the sphere of his work and 
labor of love. St. Paul, with his anxieties divided 
between Thessalonica and Athens; between the 
Thessalonians who had become Christians, and the 



246 



SERMONS. 



Athenians whom he fervently desired might hecome 
such, may serve as a fit representative of universal 
ministerial experience. Doubtless when he begun 
his labors at Thessalonica, not knowing what would 
be the result, his anxiety was great; but that anxiety 
only took a new form, when his efforts had by God's 
blessing, fully persuaded many to become Christians. 
That they should continue such, and grow in grace 
and walk worthy of their calling, and fulfil all the 
bright and cheering hopes he indulged respecting 
them ; this was quite as much a matter of solicitude 
with him; as it had been that they should "turn 
from idols to serve the living and true God, and to 
wait for His Son from heaven." If they only did 
stand fast in the Lord, he would live ; new life would 
be put into him; his severest labors would be light; 
his cares and sufferings be disregarded. 

Christians should bear this in mind. They should 
remember what a burden of anxiety to their spirit- 
ual Pastor it is, whether they remember their vows 
and adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all 
things. They should remember how their consist- 
ency, and zeal, and devotedness, may animate the 
hearts, and encourage the labors of those that are 
over them in the Lord. They should reflect that it 
is just as possible for them to put into the mouth of 
their Pastor, as it was for the Thessalonians to put 
into the mouth of St. Paul, those gladsome words, 
"For what thanks can we render to God again for 
you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes 
before our God." 

But St. Paul, alone at Athens; his spirit stirred 



ST. PAUL AS A PASTOR. 



247 



within him at all he saw and heard there; his tongue 
proclaiming with all the earnestness and energy of 
his nature, Jesus and the Resurrection, and a Judg- 
ment to come — what a lesson does this read to us 
who are set to watch for souls as they that must give 
account ! How does it say that if we have indeed 
the hearts of true ministers of Christ, those hearts 
must indeed be burdened by the thoughts of the 
many who are walking on still in darkness; not in 
such darkness as brooded over heathen Athens ; but 
in a darkness which is consistent with their being 
responsible for the light of Gospel truth. They 
know of sins which unrepented of can never be for- 
given of God. They know of a Saviour, crucified 
for their sins, able, and who only is able to save them 
from the wrath to come. They know of a judgment- 
seat, at which " every one of us must give an account 
of himself to God." They have experience enough 
of the shortness and uncertainty of human life ; of 
the suddenness and unexpectedness with which acci- 
dent or disease may overtake them, and reduce them 
to a condition in which perhaps one short and hasty 
prayer for mercy, is all they can set against a life of 
neglected opportunities and abused privileges. And 
yet they go on still in an irreligious career, they 
will not come unto Christ that they may have life ; 
they still say to every call of God, " Go thy way for 
this time, when I have a convenient season I will 
hear thee." 

My brethren, you who are not yet Christians ; who 
are yet walking in the broad road, not ready for that 
hour of death, which may come upon you, even this 



248 SERMONS. 

night; that clay of Judgment, which will certainly 
witness your arraignment before Him who once hung 
in agony and blood upon the cross for your redemp- 
tion ; you may perhaps be disposed to say, that when 
your minister has endeavored to preach faithfully, it 
need be no anxiety to him that you do not give 
token that, so far as you are concerned, he has not 
spoken in vain. It might as well be said to the 
mother — minister to your sick, perhaps your dying 
child, the remedies you think needful; but let it be 
no anxiety to you, if they prove ineffectual. Every 
one, not yet at peace with God; not yet awake to 
the interests of the soul, liable, at any moment, by 
the stroke of death to be summoned into an eternity, 
for which no preparation has been made — every 
such an one lays a burden on the Pastor's heart, 
from which no measure of fidelity on his part can 
possibly relieve him. What! not be anxious for 
those who may die in their sins and lose their own 
souls ! "What ! not be anxious for those whose in- 
difference to the vast concerns of an eternal life, 
keeps alive the fear that in the last great day the 
Pastor may be called to testify against them ! It is 
impossible not to be anxious: oh! then I beseech 
you, fellow-sinners, for your own sakes, if not for 
your Pastor's sake, "seek ye the Lord while He may 
be found," for lo ! " the night cometh when no man 
can work." 



SERMON xvrri. 



THE SIN OF BALAAM. 

Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part 
of Israel ? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last 
end be like his. — Numbers, xxiii. 10. 

To the eastward of the river Jordan rises the long 
purple wall of the mountains of Moab, towering out 
of its unfathomable depths to the height of two or 
three thousand feet. On some point of that range, 
commanding a view of the Jordan valley, a group 
of men was gathered, looking down upon the wide- 
spread encampment of the Israelites; then near the 
close of their wanderings, and about to cross the Jor- 
dan, and take possession of the Holy Land. That 
group of men was gathered there with an evil in- 
tent. Balak, the king of the Moabites, a principal 
heathen tribe, though too feeble and dispirited to 
offer resistance to the progress of the children of 
Israel on their way to Canaan; Balak, the king of 
the Moabites, had summoned Balaam, the prophet, 
from his distant home in Assyria, to try the effect, 
against the Israelites, of what Balak considered a 
sort of magic and incantation. He hoped that, by 
Balaam's calling down curses upon the Israelites, he 
might blast their prospects, arrest their progress, 
and secure their defeat. 

22 (249) 



250 



SERMONS. 



The issue, however, was just the reverse. Balaam, 
directed and controlled by God, blessed, instead of 
cursing, the Israelites; and we have, in the text, 
part of what he uttered on that occasion. As he 
looked down upon the Israelitish encampment, ar- 
ranged in its four divisions; the people already a 
great multitude, and destined, according to God's 
promise, to be as the dust of the earth, or as the 
sand upon the sea-shore; the prophet exclaimed, 
" Who can count the dust of Jacob, or the number 
of the fourth part of Israel! Let me die the death 
of the righteous, and let my last end be like his !" 
He had, at least, a momentary perception of the 
blessedness of being God's people. He lost sight, 
for the time, of everything but their happiness and 
their privileges, especially in that solemn exigency, 
which puts to the severest trial the rod and the staff 
on which the human soul may be leaning for sup- 
port. He seems to have overleaped, in imagination, 
the whole future of his earthly life, and, placing him- 
self on the verge of the grave and gate of death, to 
have expressed a desire which then he would be 
most anxious should be fulfilled. That the death of 
the righteous, and an end like his, might be his own 
from experience, was, no doubt, sincerely the desire 
and prayer of Balaam. But there was to be an in- 
terval between that moment of serious and earnest 
desire, and the time when that desire could be grati- 
fied. Balaam had to live before he could die. Ba- 
laam had to run the race that was set before him 
before that end could come, which he so fervently 
wished mi^ht be blessed with the consolations and 



THE SIN OF BALAAM. 



251 



hopes of the righteous. It was very easy to think 
and say what he would like, and to pray for it. But 
all that was only one step towards the consumma- 
tion. 

I suppose that when those adventurous Arctic nav- 
igators were shut up in the solid ice, and long and 
weary miles, by scores and hundreds, separated them 
from the open water, and a thousand perils seemed 
to answer to every whisper of hope; I suppose that 
they all wished, desired most fervently, that their 
boats were launched upon the open sea. But there 
must come first the toil and struggle; the days of 
self-denial and of suffering; the nights of sleepless 
vigilance and wearisome anxiety ; the struggle, fierce 
and long and wasting of hopes and fears. Before 
the jpicture of safety and success, which floated like 
a bright vision before their minds, could be con- 
densed into a blessed reality, what must not be en- 
dared! Could human nature bear and do all the 
emergency demanded? Balaam had his eye upon 
the open sea, the far-off reward of pains and toils 
and sufferings precedent. The toils of the journey, 
the perils of the journey, all were overlooked. But 
he must descend to the encounter. He must fight 
his way to safety and salvation. There was that 
within him which might disappoint his hopes, and it 
must be guarded against and overcome. There was 
that without him which might totally defeat, and 
would, unless he should conquer in a might divine. 

What the issue was to be, was soon decided. He 
died amidst the ice; he never reached the open sea. 
The evil of his own nature, the temptations of a 



252 



SERMONS. 



world lying in wickedness, not met in a right spirit, 
and in G-od's strength, were too much for him. His 
desire was not fulfilled. His prayer, through his 
own offence and fault, was not answered. The death 
of the righteous, and an end like his, was just the 
reverse of his experience. At thirty-five, he per- 
ished miserably; the companion and associate of the 
enemies of God's people. The brief record of his 
death is, " Balaam, the son of Beor, the soothsayer, 
did the children of Israel slay with the sword, among 
them that were slain by them." He lost his soul, 
as, it is to be feared, multitudes are losing their souls 
now, because he loved the wages of unrighteous- 
ness. The Apostle writes, "But they that will be 
rich, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many 
foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in de- 
struction and perdition. For the love of money is 
the root of all evil, which, while some coveted after, 
they have erred from the faith, and pierced them- 
selves through with many sorrows." Balaam did 
covet after "money." The spirit of the man shows 
itself in his own chosen ima°;e of the highest mo- 
tive the king of Moab could have presented to en- 
gage him to go contrary to divine direction. " If 
Balak would give me his house full of silver and 
gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my 
God, to do less or more." "A house full of silver 
and gold," no motive could go beyond that ! 

And that substantially is the motive which is now 
drowning men in destruction and perdition, as it did 
Balaam. Professing not to care for money for its 
own sake, but for its uses; especially that they may 



THE SIN OF BALAAM. 



253 



provide for themselves and theirs; they yet contrive 
to so pursue the business of life, as practically to sub- 
ordinate everything to the grand idea of money- 
making; that absorbs their days and haunts their 
nights; that denies them time and heart for any duty 
that especially pertains to their souls and their ever- 
lasting interests; that makes the blessed day of God 
itself a weariness _ and hindrance; leaves them no 
spirit to come to the house of the Lord ; and robs 
God of half their thoughts and all their affections 
even while they are there. 

Why this passion makes men talk as if it were 
impracticable for them to do the very thing that 
God has placed them here for — to make their ever- 
lasting safety sure! They manage to find an irre- 
concilable hostility between the concerns of this life, 
and the vast concerns of an eternal state; and live 
in habitual neglect of the one; that they may attend, 
as they think they should, to the other. A man may 
deceive himself; but he cannot deceive God; and if 
his heart is so under the influence of a desire for 
worldly success, as to stand in the way of his being 
a true disciple of the Lord who bought him, he is 
making shipwreck of his soul. He may assign to 
himself what motive he pleases, for that devotion to 
the affairs of this life, which, despite of all pretences 
to the contrary-, keeps him practically indifferent to 
and negligent of, the commands of the Saviour and 
the interests of his blood-bought soul. The root of 
the matter is in him, that was in Balaam; that care 
for, and devotion to, treasures upon earth, that 
robbed Balaam, as it will rob him, if he do not pray 

22* 



254 



SERMONS. 



and watch and strive, of the crown of righteous- 
ness. Every such an one ought to consider his Sa- 
viour's words, as particularly addressed to him, "For 
what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole 
world and lose his own soul V "Set your affection 
on things above, not on things on the earth." " Seek 
ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, 
and all these things shall he added unto you." 

It is a libel on God to say, that a man cannot be a 
true Christian and yet pay proper attention to the 
necessary pursuits of this present life. It is a libel 
on God to affirm, that there is anything in any 
earthly pursuit to which an accountable being has 
any right to devote himself, necessarily inconsistent 
with his loyalty to his Master. The truth is, when 
men lay the blame of their neglect of the great sal- 
vation upon the necessary business and pursuits of 
life ; when they excuse their inattention to the ser- 
vices and the ordinances of religion; by the plea 
that worldly affairs thus compel them to be inatten- 
tive; it is no wrong done then, to apply to them the 
language which St. Peter addressed to the money- 
loving, speculating Simon Magus, "Repent there- 
fore of thy wickedness, and pray God, if perchance 
the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee; 
for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness 
and in the bonds of iniquity." 

When they come to have " a new heart and a right 
spirit," and they must perish in their sins without; 
all incompatibility between lawful worldly pursuits 
and God's service will disappear; and they will do 
their duty on earth, without blasting or blighting 



THE SIN OF BALAAM. 255 

their prospects of heaven; nay, they will faithfully 
discharge all their duties, as one acceptable mode of 
testifying their gratitude to Christ for the pardon of 
their sins, and His exceeding great and precious 
promises of eternal salvation, And when Christ's 
table is spread, they will come to it ; and not refuse 
to come, because they have the affairs of this life to 
attend to; for they will be deeply sensible that the 
grace of God, promised to a faithful use of the in- 
stituted means of grace, is just what they need; that 
in their daily life they " may have always a con- 
science void of offence towards God and towards 
men." 

The man who makes his religion to consist in 
simply attending to his worldly business ; as though 
Almighty God had placed bim here for no other pur- 
pose than to make money enough to feed and clothe 
himself and his family; and the man who without 
attempting to gloss over his unconverted state, 
honestly confesses that he allows his worldly busi- 
ness to prevent his attending to the things which be- 
long to his everlasting peace; both these men are 
certainly on the wrong road ; and they both will do 
well to take care, lest while they are practically equiv- 
ocating and trifling with their God, they should 
be cut off in their sins and lose their own souls; and 
so all the desires they ever may have had to die the 
death of the righteous, and to reach an end like his, 
be terminated by a death, devoid of hope, the awful 
precursor of the bitter pains of eternal death. 

Brethren, the desire of Balaam is a desire we may 
all wisely cherish. The prayer of Balaam is a prayer 



256 



SERMONS. 



we may all wisely pray. Bat the death of Balaam 
is a death, from which, with the utmost intensity of 
desire, we should beseech God to deliver us. And 
so He will, if we will but hear His voice. So He 
will, if, as He points us to the Lamb of God that 
taketh away the sin of the world, we reply, " Lord, 
I believe; help Thou mine unbelief." Jesus has 
obeyed the law, we all have broken. Jesus has made 
atonement for the sins we all have committed. For 
His sake, pardon and salvation are offered freely to 
us all. We have no need to bring any price in our 
hands, but simply by faith to cling to Him, " in whom 
we have redemption by His blood, even the forgive- 
ness of our sins." If we do so; works, holy living 
will follow as certainly, as growth from a living root. 
"We shall confess the Saviour, in whom we have be- 
lieved ; we shall devoutly and thankfully receive His 
holy sacraments and daily keep His holy laws. We 
shall fear to offend, and love to please Him, and hav- 
ing by His mercy and grace, served Him in our gen- 
eration, we shall reach the open sea at last; we shall 
have a right to enter the city and stand before God. 



SERMON XIX. 



THE LOSS OF THE SOUL. 
What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? — Matthew, xvi. 26. 

TThex you cleera it necessary to present, what must 
reasonably be considered a very powerful motive, to 
induce men to enter upon a certain course, it is a fair 
presumption that some serious hindrances must be 
overcome. There must either be a disinclination, 
from some cause, in the individual himself, or formi- 
dable obstacles in the path to which he is urged. Of 
such a character is the motive presented in the text, 
which stands in close connection with the Saviour's 
declaration, "If any man will come after Me, let 
him deny himself and take up his cross and follow 
Me." " What shall a man give in exchange for his 
soul?" It is a consideration demanding careful at- 
tention before, by a course of self-indulgence an 
individual involves himself in the perdition and de- 
struction of ungodly men. 

The whole inquiry of our Lord is, "For what is 
a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and 
lose his own soul ? or what shall a man give in ex- 
change for his soul?" The inquiries are not identical; 
they appear to present two distinct ideas of awful 
solemnity; calculated, if anything can do it, to per- 
suade men to take thought for eternity. When the 

( 257 ) 



258 



SERMONS. 



question is asked, "for what is a man profited if he 
shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" 
the worth of the soul is the thought presented; and 
it is declared to outmeasure the largest conceptions 
of worth which mortal creatures can frame. If it 
were possible that a man could possess and enjoy 
the whole world; that he could drink in from its 
every source of delight, unmingled, unalloyed, and 
uninterrupted streams of pleasure, and that for the 
whole of a long life; yet what were it all, if pur- 
chased at the cost of his own soul? if, when the 
dream of life w^ere past, he must resign everything 
and go away into outer darkness, and dwell with the 
devouring names, and know for eternity, how fear- 
ful a thin 2* it is to fall into the hands of the living 
God? The echo of human praise, the remembrance 
of earthly enjoyments, the pride of worldly wealth, 
can do nothing for those whose torments plead, and 
plead in vain for one drop of water to cool the tongue, 
parched by the flame of the lake prepared for the 
devil and his angels. Mind and body, alike in tor- 
ment, must continue so, while the Lord God omnip- 
otent reigneth, and His solemn warning stands un- 
repealed, "for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall 
he reap." The worth of the soul measured by its 
exalted nature, its wonderful capabilities, its immor- 
tality, and above all, by the mysterious price of its 
redemption, the agony and bloody sweat, the cross 
and passion of the Eternal Son of God; this is mo- 
tive enough for profound anxiety, for unwearied and 
life-long diligence, that it may not perish, but may 
have everlasting life. It rebukes those who, while 



THE LOSS OF THE SOUL. 



259 



they count no cost too great to preserve the life of 
the body, scarce remember that they have a soul; 
scarce remember that a jewel of incalculable value 
has been placed in their keeping, of which the world, 
the flesh, and the devil combined, are assiduously 
endeavoring to rob them. It shows how ample a 
warrant the Apostle had, for the wonder and sorrow 
which are expressed in that expostulation with the 
Galatians, which equally may be made with all who 
neglect the great salvation. "0 foolish Galatians, 
who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the 
truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evi- 
dently set forth crucified among you?" 

But our divine Lord adds to the thought of the 
worth of the soul, another scarcely less impressive ; 
the irreparable character of its loss: "what shall a 
man give in exchange for his soul?" Suppose him 
to have lost it; suppose that having turned a deaf ear 
to all warnings, having persisted in a course of heed- 
lessness and impenitence, having acted as though he 
desired only a portion in this world, that day over- 
took him unawares of which he was admonished in 
vain. Suppose that accident or disease has done its 
work ; and without space for repentance, or with 
only such a repentance as a recovery from sickness 
would have shown to be worthless, he has passed the 
grave and gate of death. The conviction rushes 
upon his mind with irresistible force, as soon as body 
and soul have been separated, "the harvest is past, 
the summer is ended, and I am not saved." The day 
of probation has gone down, and the night of death 
has overtaken me ; I have no interest in that atone- 



260 



SERMONS. 



ment which God the Son, once for all, made upon 
the cross by the sacrifice of Himself. The day of 
judgment is indeed yet to come, but the fearful look- 
ing for of fiery indignation which disquiets me, antici- 
pates its decision; I know that I have sinned and 
done evil in God's sight, and never did truly repent 
me of those sins, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ 
that I might be freed from their condemnation ; and 
I remember how it was written and how I was often 
forewarned, " the soul that sinneth it shall die," and 
" it shall come to pass that every soul which will not 
hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the 
people ! " 

Suppose an individual, reduced to such a condi- 
tion, separated from earth, and awaiting in the inter- 
mediate state the summons that shall assemble the 
universe before the great white throne; can he re- 
verse that condition? Can he, in any way or in 
any degree, affect it? He will indeed be ready and 
unspeakably anxious to do so ; he will need no such 
urgency as was in vain employed while he was on 
earth to persuade him to flee from the wrath to come. 
It will demand no force of argument, no aptness 
of illustration, no appeal to the changes and chances 
of this mortal life to convince him that " the things 
which are seen are temporal, but the things which 
are not seen are eternal." Though perhaps the mas- 
ter emotion of his mind will be a horrible dread of 
punishment; and his grand anxiety to escape the 
agonies of the second death; though perhaps he may 
no longer, under the terrible pressure of such feel- 
ings, be capable of any exercise of mind, of any pen- 



THE LOSS OF THE SOUL. 



261 



itence aud faith and purposes of obedience, which 
could be esteemed a reasonable service; yet he will 
stand ready to turn into any path which may be 
lighted by a ray of hope; will eagerly embrace, if 
they be offered for but one moment, such blessings 
as for a whole lifetime on earth, were urged upon 
his acceptance in vain. Yes, if it can be of any 
avail to undo the errors, the neglects, the sins of his 
probationary existence, he will set such an example 
of promptness in attending to the things which be- 
long to his eternal peace, of earnestness in working 
out his own salvation, of anxiety that he may not 
come short of eternal life, as would, had he exhib- 
ited it in this world, have been accounted the wildest 
extravagance and enthusiasm. 

But, as he asks the question, " Is there no hope ?" 
an echo comes back, in the memories of earth, of a 
worse import than his darkest fears could suggest. 
That sacred Book, of which he heard; of which per- 
haps, in a spirit that rendered it profitless to him, 
he read so much, sends after him into the world of 
spirits its solemn words of neglected instruction 
and despised warning. And now it solves for him, 
in his dread extremity, when he does feel intense 
anxiety on the point, that same inquiry, which it 
solved for him, when amidst the distracting pursuits, 
cares, and pleasures of earth, he had no time, no 
thoughts for its solemn determination. His Saviour's 
words come home to his mind, bearing their own 
fatal reply, and quenching in the darkness of utter 
despair any faint hope which might still have lin- 
gered in his heart, that it was not yet too late to 

23 



262 



SERMONS. 



make his calling and election sure. In the midst of 
the thousands, wretched as himself, who would not 
come unto Christ that they might have life; who 
were instructed and entreated and warned fruitlessly; 
he calls to mind the Lord's own pointed demand — 
" What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" 
"Now he is in circumstances which make him feel 
the vast importance of that inquiry ; and now, when 
the conviction can only become an undying worm, 
it is written upon his mind, as with a pen of fire, 
" There is no hope." 

Imagine this your own case. Had you wealth, 
the envy of men, the nourishment of pride in your 
own heart, the ground of a confidence that was 
fatal to a trust in the living God? It has passed 
into other hands; it is enjoyed by those who 
toiled not for it. It could not purchase even one 
moment of life, when the Divine fiat went forth, 
" Cut him down;" and can it heave the massy bar 
that shuts you up unpardoned unto the judgment of 
the great day? Riches — oh, it was written for your 
learning, but you heeded it not — "riches profit not 
in the day of wrath." Had you friends upon whose 
hearts the slightest token of uneasiness or distress 
in you, could write itself in painful characters? — who 
loved you, and, forgetful of themselves, were willing 
to be spent for your happiness? The remembrance 
of the dying hour must bring them back to your 
mental vision, as they stood gathered around you in 
the inexpressible agony of anticipated bereavement. 
There are those among them, it may be, who, if the 
word of God did give the slightest warrant for such 



THE LOSS OF THE SOUL. 



263 



prayer, would, with strong crying and most bitter 
tears, beseech the Lord that your departed spirit, cut 
off in its impenitence, might yet be brought to taste 
a Saviour's love, and worship Him amidst the glo- 
rious company of heaven. But when the stroke of 
death proclaimed, "It is finished," the voice of 
prayer, in your behalf, was hushed forever; and 
when the pious friends whose counsel you despised, 
and whose example you refused to imitate, do bend 
the knee in supplication to the God of all grace, 
they know they may no longer say, " Oh Lord, be 
merciful to him whom Thou hast taken!" In an- 
guish of spirit, while they fondly cherish your mem- 
ory in their very hearts, they know that even by 
God's authority they must shut you out forever from 
their prayers. The watchman for your soul, who 
would have gloried in your return to God, and been 
made happy, if he had not spoken in vain, must 
join with them in this oppressive silence, when for 
themselves and those alive, "they come with bold- 
ness to the throne of grace." Oh ! now those long 
unheeded words express a truth full of despair to 
your undone soul, "Xo man may deliver his brother, 
or give unto God a ransom for him; for it cost more 
to redeem their souls, so that he must let that alone 
forever." 

And if vain is the help of man ; if earth is thus 
barren of hope, can you lift up your eyes unto the 
everlasting hills ? can you look for deliverance to 
Him who ever liveth to make intercession for the 
sinner while yet his day of grace lasts ? Knock at 
the door and say, " Lord, Lord, open unto us ?" and 



264 



SERMONS. 



what will be the reply? Will it open and disclose 
the Divine Redeemer stretching forth the hands 
wounded for your transgressions, to receive you, late 
as is your return ? Will He allay your fears, by 
pointing to the agonies of Calvary, and saying, 
" This blood was for thy ransom shed. I died that 
thou mightst live?" Will He send forth His Spirit to 
give you strength and power to prepare, between the 
hour of death and the judgment day, for the rich in- 
heritance of the saints ? Will He bid you trust in 
Him and plead His merits, when from the books out 
of which you must be judged there shall be read the 
history of a life, uncontrolled by God's authority, 
uninfluenced by the love of Christ, but spent in heed- 
lessness, indifference, and neglect of both ? " The 
door is shut" and what response comes to the earn-, 
est cry, "Lord, Lord, open unto us?" It is the same 
of which His word forewarned you; "I know you 
not whence you are." 

The language of your lost soul will be, Alas! 
then even heaven itself is robed in the blackness 
of darkness; even the throne of grace is shrouded 
in clouds that no prayer of mine can reach, even the 
Lord who bought me with His precious blood, and 
spoke to me for years, and bade me ponder His most 
solemn call, " why will ye die ?" even He fails me in 
this extremity. He told me of a time, when, though 
I " called, He would refuse, when though I stretched 
forth my hands, He would not regard it, but would 
laugh at my calamity, and mock when my fear should 
come as desolation, and my destruction should come 
as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish should 



TUB LOSS OF THE SOUL. 



265 



come upon me." I might have known it, if but from 
the case of the lost soul of the rich man; he asked 
but for an alleviation of his torments; he asked but 
for the warning of his living brethren; he made no 
plea for deliverance in his own behalf; he uttered no 
cry, "God be merciful to me a sinner." I might 
have known it from the Lord's own admonition, 
""Work while it is called to-day, the night cometh 
when no man can work." I might have been, and 
should have been aroused by that most fervent call, 
" whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy 
might, for there is no work, nor device, nor wisdom, 
nor knowledge in the grave whither thou goest." 
But I was blind, and deaf, and slow of heart to be- 
lieve all that God and my Saviour had spoken. I 
was full of earthly thoughts, and plans, and hopes, 
and pleasures ; bent upon taking my own way through 
life, plainly as I was told, the end thereof is the 
ways of death; and the summons came when I 
looked not for it; in a day and an hour that I thought 
not of, the long-suffering of the great and dreadful 
God did terminate; my great change came and I re- 
alized how fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands 
of the living God. For me there remaineth no more 
sacrifice for sin, but only a fearful looking for of 
judgment and fiery indignation. The Lord Himself 
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the 
voice of archangel and with the trump of God. My 
body now mouldering in the grave, shall arise and 
come forth, and with mine own eyes and not another's 
I must look on Him whom I have pierced, and be- 
hold His frown and hear His awful sentence: "De- 

23* 



266 



SERMONS. 



part ye cursed," the door of hope is shut, the ear 
of mercy is closed, the fountain opened for sin and 
for uncleanness no longer pours forth its cleansing 
and healing streams, that I may wash and be clean. 
Oh now I know to my misery, to my despair I know, 
the terrible import of that disregarded question of 
my Lord, "what shall a man give in exchange for 
his soul?" "It laughs at my calamity, it mocks now 
that my fear has come." 

And is it not still with many of you a disregarded 
question? If this night your soul should be required 
of you, would not the awful experience of which you 
have been told, be yours ? "Would not you be com- 
pelled to look back upon a life of unrepented sin; 
of forgetfulness of the God of all your mercies; of 
inattention to the one great object for which that 
God has placed you here ; and from amidst the dread 
realities of the world of spirits, look forward to the 
judgment day as certain to bring the sentence of un- 
ending woe? How would it be, ye young, if God 
should interrupt your pleasures and break short your 
plans ? if to the young man bent upon his follies, or 
engrossed to forgetfulness of all higher interests in 
his worldly cares ; if to the careless daughter, living 
in pleasure and dead while she lives, the call should 
be directed by the cold breath of the destroying 
angel, " Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou 
mayest be no longer steward V What would be your 
condition if to-morrow should announce, to us who 
are alive now, the mournful news of sudden death, 
of your departure hence ? Would not all that you 
had heard to-day, if unregarded now, come sadly to 



THE LOSS OF THE SOUL. 



267 



your thoughts ? and would not your soul, paralyzed 
by despair, refuse to ask, "what shall a man give in 
exchange for his soul?" 

Then, in God's name, be wise to-day. Count not, 
even by another day's delay, a ruin which no prayers, 
no tears, not even a Saviour's intercession will re- 
pair. Let not the folly of the foolish ; the giddiness 
of the gay ; the levity of the trifling ; or any of the 
world's thousand influences, be used by the devil to 
snatch away the word which has now been sown in 
your heart. As you go from this house, let not a 
warning pass away from your minds neglected, which 
will upbraid you in the regions of despair, and tell 
you that your irremediable ruin was your own offence 
and fault. But let your choice be fixed, now while 
it is called to-day, upon a forgiving God and Saviour. 
Let your determination be made, in His strength 
who can enable you to be steadfast unto the end; 
that you will confess the Lord who bought you, be- 
fore men, and lead the rest of your life according to 
that beginning; tbat you will pray in sorrow for 
your sinful, misspent lives; for pardon, granted 
through a Saviour's love, and for His dear sake who 
bare your sins upon the accursed tree; and diligently 
endeavor henceforth always to live in such a state 
that you may never be afraid to die. Then when you 
die, there may not be to you such misery in the 
thought which our Redeemer's words suggest to 
those who are cut off in their sins, "What shall a 
man give in exchange for his soul?" 



SERMON XX. 



THE UXSEEN WITNESSES. 

And he answered, Fear not, for they that be with us are more than 
they that be with them. — II. Kings, vi. 16. 

These words were uttered, in the confidence of a 
certain faith, by a man who to human appearances 
was in the most perilous circumstances. The prophet 
Elisha had incurred the enmity of the king of Syria; 
a state of war existed between that monarch and the 
king of Israel, and the prophet was made, by God, 
the medium of communicating to the latter, the hos- 
tile designs of the former. The best laid schemes 
of the king of Syria failed to harm the Israelites. It 
was evident that those schemes, however secretly con- 
trived, were all made known to those at whose de- 
struction they were aimed, and were designed to 
accomplish. This led the king of Syria to suspect 
treason on the part of his own subjects. But when 
he inquired, "Will ye not shew me which of us is 
for the king of Israel?" one of his servants answered, 
"Xone, my lord, king; but Elisha the prophet 
that is in Israel telleth the king of Israel the w r ords 
which thou speakest in thy bed-chamber." On as- 
certaining where the prophet was, the king of Syria 
sent an armed force to surround the place and cap- 
ture the man of God. " And they came by night and 
( 268) 



THE UNSEEN WITNESSES. 



269 



compassed the city about ; and when the servant of 
the man of God was risen early and gone forth, be- 
hold an host encompassed the city about, with horses 
and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas! 
my master, how shall we do ? And he answered, Fear 
not, for they that be with us are more than they that 
be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I 
pray Thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the 
Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he 
saw, and behold the mountain was full of horses and 
chariots of fire round about Elisha." 

St. Paul asks, with regard to the angels, "Are 
they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister 
to them that shall be heirs of salvation ? " And there 
was an exemplification of his words. Elisha, a man 
of God, was surrounded by an angelic guard, deputed 
by the Most High, to protect His servant against the 
efforts of human malice. Elisha believed God's 
words, "He shall give His angels charge over thee 
to keep thee in all thy ways ; " and therefore he said 
"fear not," even when to human view he had reason, 
not for fear merely, but even for absolute despair. He 
did not need the additional testimony of his senses to 
calm him into repose. But his servant did ; and out 
of compassion to human frailty, and that we, through 
patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have 
hope, the sufficiency of divine protection was made 
a matter of sight. The agents of God in defending 
his servants, ordinarily invisible to mortal eye, were 
made visible; and the young man had irresistible 
proof of the solidity of the foundation on which the 
prophet stood, when in quietness and confidence, in 



270 



SERMONS. 



full view of the host of his human foes, he said, 
"Fear not, for they that be with us are more than 
they that be with them." Said our Master and only 
Saviour, "Blessed are they that have not seen, and 
yet have believed." It is an impressive and instruc- 
tive spectacle, that servant of the Lord, so calm, so 
confident, so free from apprehension and anxiety, 
when a worldly mind must have been like the 
troubled sea that cannot rest. It shows what faith 
can do; that "faith which is the evidence of things 
not seen," how it can inspire the breast with that 
"peace which passeth all understanding," which 
"the world can neither give nor take away." Elisha's 
belief did for him, just what the young man's vision 
did for him. It gave him an assurance of the pres- 
ence and protection of Almighty God's resistless, 
divine power, which raised him above the disturbing 
influence of his outward and seemingly hopeless cir- 
cumstances. His conduct and his words alike said, 
" I know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded 
that He is able to keep that which I have committed 
unto Him." 

The consideration of the prophet's case cannot but 
prove interesting and instructive to those who pro- 
fess and call themselves Christians; and who honestly 
and earnestly desire to be such not in name only, 
"but in deed and in truth." It is popularly said that 
we are the creatures of circumstances; and in a quali- 
fied sense this is true, even of Christians themselves. 
Certainly upon our circumstances is liable to depend 
what sort of Christians we shall be. Throw an in- 
dividual, upon whom the vows of God are resting, 



THE UNSEEN WITNESSES. 



271 



among those whose example and influence tend to 
deepen his sense of responsibility, and to incite him 
to the cultivation of the Christian graces, and he will 
feel the better able and the more disposed to adorn 
the doctrine of God his Saviour, in all things. And, 
on the other hand, let his associations be of an oppo- 
site character, and a result the very reverse will or- 
dinarily follow; he will rise but little above the sur- 
rounding level of character. To a certain extent 
this is inevitable. Constituted as we are, the circum- 
stances of our condition will exercise an influence 
for good or for evil, will animate or discourage, will 
help us forward or retard our progress in the narrow 
w r ay which leadeth unto life. But it is worthy of 
serious consideration whether Christians do not com- 
monly think too much of this; whether they do not 
charge upon their circumstances, those defects of 
character, those inconsistencies, that deadness of 
spirit, that lack of hearty devotion to the interest of 
Christ and their own souls, which even hasty self- 
examination reveals; which indeed is often so mani- 
fest as to compel notice. It should be our aim and 
endeavor, the Lord being our helper, to become as 
independent of our circumstances as possible. 

And a most instructive lesson as to the mode, 
practicability and profitableness of so doing, is fur- 
nished by Elisha's case. He had no one to counte- 
nance him, no one to hold him up. The people of 
the place in which he dwelt, nay, even his own ser- 
vant, did but dishearten and discourage him. ' ' Alas, 
my master, how shall we do?" It was little short 
of an invitation to give up all for lost, to cast away 



272 



SERMONS. 



that confidence which hath great recompense of re- 
ward; outward circumstances suggested an apology 
for any lack of faith the prophet might be tempted 
to manifest. He could have said, "Mine enemies 
live and are mighty, and they that hate me wrong- 
fully are many in number." In that beleagured 
place, he might have acted, and have seemed to have 
an excuse for acting, as the afflicted patriarch was 
counselled to act. "Dost thou yet hold fast thine in- 
tegrity? curse Gocl and die." But he sustained him- 
self; alone, unprotected, unencouraged, as he seemed 
to be, he drew upon the unseen world for courage 
and strength. He felt that his loneliness was only in 
appearance; and that, in sober truth, his outward cir- 
cumstances were no true exponent of his real condi- 
tion; that it became him to feel and to act rather in 
reference to what was not seen, than in reference to 
what was seen. The existence, the presence, the 
protecting care of God were as much facts as the en- 
compassing armies, the hostility and power of his 
mortal foes. If he was threatened by visible enemies, 
he was also hedged about by invisible, but more 
mighty friends. And therefore to his servant's de- 
sponding and despairing question, he replied, "Fear 
not; for they that be with us are more than they that 
be with them." 

How often are Christians placed in circumstances 
similar to those of the prophet ! Whichever way 
they look they are tempted to say, "All these things 
are against me." Their condition in life, their con- 
nexions and associations, all seem adapted to hinder 
them in running the race that is set before them. If 



THE UNSEEN WITNESSES. 273 

they look abroad for strength, and consider the char- 
acter and conduct of fellow-Christians, they find but 
occasions of despondency and distrust. It seems 
indeed as if all sought their own, not the things 
which are Jesus Christ's. In many instances, per- 
haps, with a profession of religion, even a w T ant in 
some particulars of common morality is associated. 
And for the most part, such an interest in, and eager- 
ness for, the world and the things that are in the 
world, marks the behavior of those who name the 
name of Christ; they seem so much to resemble, 
and to have so many feelings and practices in com- 
mon with the enemies of the cross of Christ ; their 
religion bears so much the aspect of a mere keeping 
up of appearances; it affords so many indications of 
not having struck its roots very deep into the heart; 
that they are painfully conscious of the operation 
upon themselves of an influence, the tendency of 
which is to cause them to have a name to live while 
they are dead. The example and intercourse of 
Christians do not hold them up and inspirit them ; 
do not "point to Heaven and lead the way," do not 
make them feel as though they belonged to an army, 
in the very act of fighting for a prize of incalculable 
value; with Christ as its Great Captain; the world, 
the flesh, and the devil as its powerful and inveterate 
enemies ; and everlasting felicity as the glorious re- 
ward of fidelity unto death. There is just that in 
prevailing character and conduct, which would mark 
them as singular should they be Christians after the 
pattern of the divine Lord, or excuse them to their 
own consciences for becoming such. 

24 



274 



SERMONS. 



iTow in such circumstances, and what Christian 
has not known them and does not know them? in 
such circumstances, what is the individual follower 
of Christ to do ? How is he to secure himself against 
the liability to faint and grow weary; to be neither 
hot nor cold ? How is he to animate his own soul 
for the great work which God has given him to do? 
How is he to nerve himself for the life, that he 
"may die the death of the righteous, and his last 
end be like his ?" He must call to his aid, " things 
not seen/' By the power of faith he must summon 
about him those realities which God's holy word lays 
open to his view. He is not alone. He is not de- 
void of encouragement. Though there be not a 
solitary fellow-Christian working out his own salva- 
tion with fear and trembling, yet if he is giving all 
diligence to make his calling and election sure, they 
that be with him are more than they that be with 
the godless, the unbelieving, the disobedient. How 
few comparatively are those whose example and in- 
fluence are against him ! He comes in contact with, 
and is unfavorably affected, by, perhaps a few score 
of individuals, a narrow circle of acquaintances which 
every passing year makes narrower. While on the 
other band, a great multitude, which no man can 
number, with each of whom he has common inter- 
ests, and common privileges, and common bopes, 
stand forth to bid him God speed. There are Cher- 
ubim and Seraphim who do God's pleasure; there 
are Angels and Archangels who excel in strength, 
who fulfil His commandment and hearken unto the 
voice of His word. There are the glorious company 



THE UNSEEN WITNESSES. 



275 



of the Apostles, the goodly fellowship of the Prophets, 
the noble army of Martyrs, and that portion of the 
Holy Church which has passed from earth to para- 
dise. And raising the thoughts from creatures, there 
is God the Judge of all, Jesus the Mediator of the 
!New Covenant, and the Holy Ghost, the Lord and 
Giver of Life. 

And all these are not far from any of us. Saul 
and St. Stephen saw and heard the Saviour from the 
earth. The Lord opened the eyes of the young man, 
and the hosts of heaven were seen encamping around 
the prophet of the Lord. It is not otherwise now. 
"We are in as intimate association with " things not 
seen " as they were. We might be consciously pres- 
ent with the Lord to-night, as we are really present 
with Him to-day. We might come to mingle with 
the myriad dead, as truly as now we are amidst the 
living. An hour hence a righteous soul, called sud- 
denly away, would be as sensible of the presence of 
a guard of holy angels, as we are sensible of each 
other's presence now. And shall we suffer ourselves 
to take the tone of our feelings from, and be influ- 
enced even to forgetfulness of God by, the few dying 
sinners with whom, perchance only for the next 
few days, we may stand connected; and be all unaf- 
fected by the glorious company laid open to our view 
by faith, with whom our relations may be, if we will, 
eternal ? Shall we fear, and faint, and be content to 
be as others whom our consciences tell us are not 
what they ought to be, when they who are for us are 
so many, so holy, so glorious ? 

I know how such considerations appear to worldly 



276 



SERMONS. 



minds; and even to the minds of some who bear the 
Christian name; how fanciful, how unreal! And 
the Scriptures explain why it is so, when they speak 
of men's walking by sight, not by faith. To such 
minds, awful as is the reflection, the thought of the 
existence and presence of the God of their being is 
fanciful and unreal. But let Christians remember 
that just in proportion as, by the exercise of faith 
in God's holy word, " things not seen " come to be 
regarded as realities; just in proportion as they en- 
dure as seeing Him who is invisible; just in propor- 
tion as by earnest prayer for God's grace to open 
their eyes that they may see, they bring themselves 
under the influence of the powers of the world to 
come; just in the same proportion will they be se- 
cured against those dangers, with which outward cir- 
cumstances in this wicked world, will always in differ- 
ent degrees threaten them. When with Elisha they 
can look out beyond surrounding discouragements 
and hindrances, and draw supplies of peace, and en- 
ergy, and comfort from what " eye hath not seen," 
they will be steadfast and unmovable. They will not 
be bowed down by others, but sustain them. They 
will ever be ready to reply to the desponding in- 
quiry of fellow- Christians, " What shall we do?" 
"Fear not; for they that be with us are more than 
they that be with them." 

" Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about 
with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside 
every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset 
us, and let us run with patience the race that is set 
before us, looking unto Jesus the Author and Fin- 



THE UNSEEN WITNESSES. 



277 



isher of our faith." And then when we shall have 
reached the position occupied by the great Apostle 
of the Gentiles ; when we shall have served God in 
our generation with reverence and godly fear, and 
be standing on the verge of the better world; with 
him shall we be able to say, " For I am now ready 
to be offered, and the time of my departure is at 
hand. I have fought a good fight; I have finished 
my course; I have kept the faith; henceforth there 
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which 
the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me in that 
day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that 
love His appearing." 

The prophet's case seems susceptible of another 
application to the purposes of instruction. The con- 
sideration by which he fortified himself and his ser- 
vant is adapted to make us obedient to the divine 
command — "Go into my vineyard and work.' 5 In 
few particulars, perhaps, are Christians more cen- 
surable than w T hen they fail to resemble Him who 
"went about doing good." They do not work; 
they do not exert a positive, perceptible influence 
upon the world; they are too apt to rest satisfied 
with merely avoiding those things which are con- 
trary to their profession, instead of giving all dili- 
gence to follow such things as are agreeable to the 
same. Let every one who bears the name of Christ 
ask, Would society be the worse off for my removal ? 
Would its moral and religious interests seem to have 
suffered a serious loss, if I should be called to give 
an account of my stewardship? While I might be 
missed as a member of civil society, of the business 

24* 



278 



SERMONS. 



community, of professional, political life, would the 
cause of my Master and only Saviour, to whose ser- 
vice body and soul, for time and eternity, I have 
been dedicated, would it have reason to mourn and 
lament ? Have I lived as if I thought it was my 
mission to do all the good in my power to the bodies, 
and especially to the souls of men ? Have I felt and 
acted as if indeed I believed that there could be no so 
worthy employment of my time, my means, and my 
influence, as in the promotion of the interests of the 
Church of Christ— as in the pursuit of ends con- 
nected with the Saviour's glory, and the well-being 
of those for whom He shed His precious blood? 
What have I done, what am I doing for Him who 
has done such great things for me? How far have I 
realized the character which is imputed to me and 
all who bear the Christian name, " Ye are not your 
own, but ye are bought with a price, wherefore glo- 
rify God in your bodies and in your spirits, which 
are His?" Such a series of questions, honestly an- 
swered, would it not convict us all, my Christian 
hearers, of comparative idleness ? 

And there is a disposition to be satisfied with hav- 
ing it so. Xothing is more common from the lips 
of Christians, than avowals of their inability to do 
anything; to exert an influence, to help forward, in 
their families, in society, in their particular congre- 
gation, in the Church at large, pure and undefiled 
religion. They feel so borne down by their inca- 
pacity, that they are content if they can only have 
some measure of success in living godly themselves. 
But suppose they remember that when they are put- 



THE UNSEEN WITNESSES. 



279 



ting forth their energies to do God's work, when 
they are setting up as their aim some object designed 
to glorify His great name, and advance the highest 
welfare of His creatures, they are laborers together 
with all that is good and holy in the universe — sup- 
pose they remember, "they that are w T ith us are 
more than they that be against us," will not they 
renew their strength and work in hope of results 
valuable and lasting? The father and the mother 
in their family; the minister amidst his flock; the 
teacher in the Sunday-School; the friend with his 
companions in the daily intercourse of life ; the man 
of generous purposes whose heart has conceived 
some plan of self-denying liberality, some scheme 
of usefulness which must look for its reward in the 
approval of his ow T n conscience, and the favor and 
promises of his God; will not all these be made 
strong for God, by looking beyond themselves and 
the "things that are seen?" Angels are ready to 
rejoice, if by their efforts one sinner is brought to 
repentance. The Lord of glory will see of the trav- 
ail of His soul, and be satisfied at results which those 
prayers and alms and efforts may reach. The Holy 
Ghost the Comforter, will give His aid and bless- 
ing, and enable them to accomplish what a doubt- 
ing mind and a weak faith would have counted 
impossibilities. 

The humblest Christians, acting in the spirit of 
Elisha, borne up by a persuasion of the reality of the 
objects of the Christian faith, have wrought win- 
ders, and may do it again. They may work with 
the strength of omnipotence. There is not one 



280 



SERMONS. 



of us, my Christian hearers, who may not leave an 
impress upon the generation to which we belong, by 
our prayers, our example, our eagerness to make and 
improve occasions of usefulness. As sworn follow- 
ers of Him to whom " all power both in heaven and 
earth is given," we have mighty energies at our com- 
mand. It is true, in a larger sense than we are will- 
ing to suppose, 4 'All things are possible to him that 
believeth." Let us not, with a feigned humility, 
distrust our own powers, or cower before the hin- 
drances which the world, the flesh, and the devil 
may throw up, to make us- unprofitable servants. 
God placed us in this fallen and wicked world to be 
centres of influence for good — to be the light of the 
world, and the salt of the earth. It is not enough 
to be harmless. We must be useful—useful when 
time is viewed in its connection with eternity. Let 
our prayers be unceasing, "Lord, open our eyes that 
we may see." " Help Thou mine unbelief." Let 
us give ourselves, with the hearty earnestness which 
characterizes the children of this world, to whatever 
promises glory to God and good to man. Let not 
the zeal with which we pursue mere temporal, per- 
sonal aims, stand in reproving contrast with the lan- 
guidness of our efforts to honor Christ and serve His 
cause among men. As the multitude are hurrying 
forward in the career of worldly ambition, gain, and 
pleasure; and those who do indeed come up to our 
conceptions of what the Christian ought to be, are 
rare as angels' visits, let us seek in the exercise of 
faith to unveil the glorious realities of a world peo- 
pled with those who never weary in doing God's 



THE UNSEEN WITNESSES. 



281 



pleasure; a world where, ere long, if faithful unto 
death, we too shall be. When some would cut the 
sinews of exertion, and hold us back, and make us 
idlers in the vineyard of the Lord, asking, as did the 
prophet's servant, "How shall we do?" let faith 
come to our aid and say to us, in language which 
shall call forth in the Master's work all the energies 
we have, "Fear not; for they that be with us are 
more than they that be with them." 



SERMON XXI. 



TRIALS SENT FOR OUR GOOD. 

Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad 
for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe. 
— St. John, xi. 14, 15. 

Passing out from Jerusalem, towards the north- 
east, over the Mount of Olives, at the distance of 
two miles from the city, you come to "a wild mount- 
ain hamlet perched on its broken plateau of rock," 
the site of Bethany. There during our Saviour's so- 
journ upon earth, dwelt an humble Jewish family 
with whom He was pleased often to make his tem- 
porary home. A brother and two maiden sisters lived 
together, mutually loving and beloved. It was their 
blessed privilege to be the objects of the special af- 
fection of the Lord. "Jesus loved Martha, and her 
sister, and Lazarus." Secure in the friendship of 
such an one, they may perhaps have thought, " There 
shall no evil happen unto us, neither shall any plague 
come nigh our dwelling." But if they thought so, 
they were to experience a bitter disappointment. A 
fatal sickness entered that happy home, and soon the 
only brother lay at the point of death. 

Jesus was not far off. A short time before He 
had been in a neighboring city; but when the Jews 
had sought to stone Him, He had escaped out of their 
(282) 



TRIALS SENT FOR OUR GOOD. 



283 



hand, and had gone away beyond Jordan unto the 
place where John at first baptized, and there He 
abode. Bethany was on the way thither, less than 
a day's journey off. " Therefore his sisters sent unto 
Him, saying, Lord ! behold he whom thou lovest is 
sick." "High in the distance, eastward from Beth- 
any, are the Perean Mountains, closing the view with 
their long horizontal outline, their overshadowing 
height, their deep purple shade; the foreground is 
the deep descent to the Jordan valley. On the fur- 
ther side of that dark abyss, Martha and Mary 
knew that Christ was abiding, when they sent their 
messenger; up that long ascent He came, when, out- 
side the village, Martha and Mary met Him, and the 
Jews stood round weeping." 

But when did He come ? the very day He was sent 
for? the next day? the day following? Nay — only 
when Lazarus had been dead and buried four days, 
might He have been seen, journeying up the steep 
ascent to visit the bereaved sisters. Bereaved He 
knew they had been, for before He started from be- 
yond Jordan, He said to His disciples, " our friend 
Lazarus sleepeth," and then, plainly, " Lazarus is 
dead." And it was into His own Almighty protec- 
tion that the soul of Lazarus had been received, 
when it departed this life, on the very day the sis- 
ters' message had been sent. That was a very nat- 
ural remark which some of the Jews made, when 
they beheld J esus moved to tears. " Could not this 
man which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused 
that even this man should not have died ?" If Jesus 
had been there Lazarus would not have died. He 



284 



SERMONS. 



intimated as much when He told His disciples plainly, 
"Lazarus is dead." And he actual! y abode two days 
still in the same place where He was, after He had 
been told of Lazarus' sickness, that sickness might 
run its course, that Lazarus might die. Yea, He 
even expresses a solemn, mysterious joy that He had 
not been at the scene of this fatal illness. " And I 
am glad, for your sakes, that I was not there, to the 
intent that ye may believe." 

Here then, was a most afflictive occurrence, which 
the Lord might have prevented, and which yet, he 
was glad he had not prevented, because so much 
good would come of it. And this may teach us what 
view to take of all our troubles and distresses when- 
soever they oppress us; our afflictions and adver- 
sities, whether in mind, body, or estate. For while 
there are very few sorrows, productive of such great 
and far-reaching consequences as the death of Laz- 
arus; there is not one we experience, not the slightest, 
which may not produce some measure of precisely 
the same blessed result. "What result did the death 
of Lazarus produce ? It made those who were 
Christ's disciples already, more decided in their faith 
and trust in Him. "When they beheld their Master 
proving His own words, " I am the Resurrection and 
the Life," by raising Lazarus from the dead, they 
reposed with confidence on His Almighty protection 
and power. " And many of the Jews which came to 
Mary, and had seen the things that Jesus did, be- 
lieved on Him." While I am speaking to you, to- 
day, there are doubtless souls in the Paradise of God 
who, humanly speaking, would not have been there, 



TRIALS SENT FOR OUR GOOD. 



285 



if Lazarus had not died, and been recovered from 
his corruption and death by the life-giving voice of 
Him who is the Almighty God, the Prince of Life. 
The whole train of the blessed results which would 
follow that death, was distinctly before the mortal 
vision of the Son of God, when He said, " And I am 
glad for your sakes, that I was not there, to the in- 
tent that ye may believe." Cheaply was the conver- 
sion of a single soul to Christ purchased, by all the 
sorrow caused by the death of Lazarus. Amply 
were the sisters compensated for all their deep agony 
of spirit, by that stronger faith in Jesus, that greater 
nearness to Him, which followed upon their bitter 
bereavement. 

How much of the real religion that is in the world 
is the immediate result, under God, of human suffer- 
ing and sorrow ! How many Christians — true and 
living members of the Church, can say — but for that 
affliction I had not yet come unto Jesus ! How many 
are living nearer to God ; with a more impressive 
sense of the value and blessedness of the things of 
Christ, because they have in some way suffered grief! 
If every one who has been made a Christian, or a 
better Christian by trial, could be known by some 
outward and visible sign, we should see but few, that 
were not so distinguished. In the world to come, it 
will be so. " White robes," and " palms in their 
hands," will designate those who will "have come 
out of great tribulation and have washed their robes, 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." 
Indeed, though God's dispensations are very differ- 
ent to different individuals, some experiencing more 

25 



286 



SERMONS, 



and greater trials than others; no sinner enters into 
rest without having been, in some way and degree, 
a sufferer. " Man is born to trouble, as the sparks 
to fly upward" and " through much tribulation we 
enter into the kingdom of God." And we should 
be willing to do so: "tribulation worketh patience, 
and patience, experience, and experience, hope." 
Good comes of trial, to ourselves, to others. Our 
losses, our bereavements, our sicknesses, our disap- 
pointments, may be followed by such happy results, 
that He who might have prevented them may say, 
" and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there." 

I say, may be followed by such happy results, not 
must be. The sorrows of life are not necessarily pro- 
ductive of good. They do not always lead to faith, 
or stronger faith in Christ. There were men, who 
participated in, and sympathized with, the sorrow of 
the bereaved, and who witnessed the raising of Laz- 
arus, who were made worse by that experience and 
privilege. It seems strange, but it was nevertheless 
so. " Some of them went their ways to the Phari- 
sees, and told them what things Jesus had done." 
So far from being made to believe in Christ, they 
were the more set against Christ. It would have 
been better for them if they had never heard of Laz- 
arus, or witnessed the power of Christ displayed 
towards him. They were led unto the house of 
mourning and then up to the very sepulchre. They 
saw what death had done ; their thoughts were 
brought as closely into contact with eternal things, as 
the}' could be, until their own souls should pass into 
eternity. They had sensible proof of the love and 



TRIALS SENT FOR OUR GOOD. 



287 



pity, the graciousness and power of Jesus: and yet 
all was lost upon them : all failed to bring them to 
seek in Him pardon and peace, and safety and salva- 
tion. 

How often the same thing happens now! — the 
same thing — for when a beloved relative dies, are we 
not placed in the house of mourning, and led up to 
the grave? Have we not most mournful, painful 
proof of death's awful power? Can we be brought 
nearer to eternity and eternal things until we shall 
die ourselves, than we are at such a time ? And, if 
our relative was a Christian, was calmed and com- 
forted aud supported in the solemn hour of death, 
by the promises and hopes and presence and grace of 
Christ; had we not then sensible proof of the love 
and pity, the graciousness and power of Jesus ? And 
have we all who have had such an experience in our 
past lives come unto Jesus? Can we all look back to 
such death-scenes and say, that made me a Christian? 
That determined me to seek and confess my Saviour? 
That fully persuaded me to fly for refuge to the hope 
set before me in the Gospel? Or — from that time 
though I was a Christian before, I have given greater 
diligence to make my calling and election sure ? 

Oh ! if every death, if eveiy sorrow had yielded 
the blessed fruits Jesus intended, in allowing it to 
come upon you ; I should be addressing now, a con- 
gregation made up altogether of true Christians. 
We should be gathered together to-day, one harmo- 
nious company, travelling home to God. Old and 
young, male and female, we should cordially unite 
in saying, "It is good for me, that I have been 



288 



SERMONS. 



afflicted. Before I was afflicted I went astray, but 
now have I kept Thy word ! " In no other way can 
we pay such respect to the memory of the loved and 
lost, as by believing in, and being the true disciples 
of that Saviour, who has proved Himself to them, 
"a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother." As 
with the eye of memory, they look back over that 
path which has led them home to God; how in- 
tensely earnest must be their desire that all whom 
they have loved should follow in that same path — 
the narrow way that leadeth unto life. Let them 
not be disappointed. You have but one way left 
now of contributing to their happiness. They can 
receive nothing more at your hands, except the in- 
creased joy they will certainly experience, if you 
become a true Christian now, and join them in their 
abode of bliss, when God shall call you to pass that 
grave and gate of death, which through a Saviour's 
mercy and power, has ushered them into their eter- 
nal rest. 

JSTotice for whose benefit the Lord was specially 
solicitous, when He expressed His gladness that He 
had not been at Bethany to prevent the death of 
Lazarus. It was to His own disciples, the men whom 
He had chosen to preach His Gospel and establish 
His Church, and whom He was preparing for their 
great work by their constant attendance upon His 
instructions and ministry ; it was to them, He said, 
" Lazarus is dead, and I am glad, for your sakes, that 
I was not there, to the intent ye may believe." That 
sorrowful dispensation was to fit them to be more 
efficient ministers of Christ. They believed in Him 



TRIALS SENT FOR OUR GOOD. 



289 



already: but they would believe in Him more firmly, 
for all that had happened to Lazarus. They would 
have such an increased confidence in the ability and 
willingness of Jesus to save to the uttermost all who 
should come unto God by Him, that they would 
preach Christ with that added power, which always 
comes with the ability to say, "We speak that we 
do know and testify that we have seen. 7 ' The good 
it would do to His ministers, and through them to 
the people to whom they should minister was the 
reason, or one reason, why Jesus was glad at what 
had happened at Bethany. 

It is an unspeakable comfort to the afflicted min- 
ister of Christ, whatever forms his afflictions may 
assume, to hope that they will contribute to the suc- 
cess of his ministry; that they will make him a 
better man, a more faithful and efficient preacher 
and pastor, and dispose the people to be more im- 
pressed and benefited by his ministrations. "To the 
intent he may believe," is the Lord's motive in all 
the trials He sees fit to lay on such an one ; and if 
his own faith in Jesus, his Master and only Saviour, 
is thus strengthened ; he may hope, and this hope is 
his abounding consolation, that faith in Jesus will 
spread and deepen among his flock; that he will be 
able to do more for Christians; and to bring in pen- 
itence and faith, to "the Lamb of God, that taketh 
away the sin of the world," many who never before 
owned their Lord. What a suffering minister of 
Christ was St. Paul ! We may all blush to think of 
comparing our trials with his. Yet hear how he 
speaks of them; what view he takes of them. 

25* 



290 



SERMONS. 



" Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of 
all comfort; who comforteth us in our tribulation, 
that we may be able to comfort them which are in 
any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves 
are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of 
Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abound- 
eth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is 
for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual 
in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also 
suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your 
consolation and salvation." And again he writes, 
when on one of his apostolic journeys, which ex- 
posed him to so many distresses, "And now, behold, 
I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not know- 
ing the things which shall befall me there: save that 
the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that 
bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these 
things move me, neither count I my life dear unto 
myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, 
and the ministry which I have received of the Lord 
Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." He 
was willing to be sick; to be poor; to be persecuted; 
to suffer; to die; if only he might thereby, the more 
increase the Church of Christ, by members whom he 
might hope to meet in heaven. And again, when the 
Christians at Cesarea, besought Paul with tears, not 
to go up to Jerusalem, because they knew what cruel 
persecutions awaited him there; with what impas- 
sioned earnestness did he reply, "What mean ye to 
weep and to break my heart ? For I am ready not 
to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for 



TRIALS SENT FOR OUR GOOD. 291 

the name of the Lord Jesus." Yes, all trials are 
lightened and can the more easily be borne, by the 
minister of Christ, if only he has good hope that the 
Saviour will be glorified thereby; and good be done 
to his own soul, and to the souls of those for whom 
he is set to watch as one that must give account. 

Can we have such good hope ? Have we reason to 
believe that God's providential dispensations toward 
us, will result in our being more faithful, and in our 
being more benefited by the ministrations of the 
house of God ? ~No doubt, one intended use of the 
sicknesses and bereavements which God lays upon 
us, is to make us feel more deeply the wisdom of the 
Saviour's words, and to adopt His determination more 
heartily as our own, " I must work the works of Him 
that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh when 
no. man can work." These words of our Master 
himself, how appropriately may they be adopted by 
each of us ; and especially when passing sicknesses, 
images and forewarnings of the last, admonish 
" what thou doest, do quickly." It is the same mighty 
and gracious Saviour who brought Lazarus out of 
his grave, who brings us out of our sufferings, who 
"looses us and lets us go," that we may improve the 
remaining days He shall give us, to His glory and the 
good of our own and other souls. Let us help each 
other to do this. Are you already admitted to the 
fellowship of Christ's religion? pray the more to 
Him, "Lord increase our faith," and the more earn- 
estly endeavor to show your faith by a more blame- 
less and holy life ; a life that will be a testimony to 
the world that you have been with Jesus, and have 



292 



SERMONS. 



learned of Him. Have you yet so to believe in the 
Lord who bought you, as to be moved to become 
His disciple ? oh ! at once heed Him, as He even now 
says to you, " Behold I stand at the door and knock." 
May Thy good Spirit, oh ! Lord, bring ever good out 
of Thine own dispensations, causing them to bring 
Thy people nearer to Thyself; giving occasion to 
Thine own divine lips to say in heaven what once 
Thou saidst on earth, "I am glad, for your sakes, that 
I was not there, to the intent that ye might believe." 



SEEMOX XXII. 



THE OBLIGATION OF DUTY. 

And Moses said unto God, Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh, 
and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt ? 
— Exodus, iii. 11. 

In our day and generation, when a man has reached 
the age of eighty years, he considers the work of 
life as well-nigh, or quite accomplished. The prayer, 
which, if he be a godly man, he is then disposed to 
make is, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant de- 
part in peace." We have had one instance in the 
Church, and there may have been more like it, of a 
man who, after the age of forty, turned aside from a 
successful legal and political career to serve God in 
the sacred ministry of His Church. His most im- 
portant and durable influence was exerted, and his 
most precious successes were achieved, through a 
series of years in which men usually consider that 
they are entitled to rest from their labors, and enjoy 
the fruits of toils that are properly diminishing, or 
at an end. 

But it sometimes pleases God that the discipline 
of what might be considered a long life, shall pre- 
pare men for embarking in that which is to prove 
its chief work. To themselves, and to others, it 

(293) 



294 



SEHMONS. 



may seem as if, for years, they were doing little or 
nothing in the world — making no impression, yield- 
ing no influence, accomplishing no important and 
enduring work. They may be ready to do so, and 
may earnestly desire to do so. They may gladly 
improve every opening and opportunity for useful- 
ness, which the course of circumstances may present. 
They may show that they are really actuated by that 
Christian love, which declares its genuineness by the 
very ingenuity with which it finds work for itself to 
do. And yet they may not seem to themselves to 
be accomplishing much ; all that they can effect falls 
so far short of a fit token of their thankfulness to 
Him, who loved them and gave Himself for them. 
The question of the Psalmist is, in all honesty, often 
upon their lips, " What shall I render unto the Lord 
for all His benefits towards me ?" 

We may not doubt that it was so with Moses. The 
first part of his life gave promise that he would do 
something in the world. Not for himself ; he was 
above the poor, low ambition of living unto himself ; 
had worthier views of life than to suppose that it 
was given for mere temporal and individual aims. 
33ut he thought he would do something in the world 
for God's glory, for the welfare of God's people. He 
trusted that he had a high and holy mission. How 
natural under the circumstances of his case ! The 
remembrance of his own wonderful history, could 
hardly fail to inspire him with high hopes of useful- 
ness. How had God watched over him from his 
cradle ! Why should the slave-born infant have been 
so strangely protected? Why have been so myste- 



THE OBLIGATION OF DUTY. 



295 



riously linked with two races — by natural descent 
with God's people — by adoption into the royal fam- 
ily with the oppressing Egyptians? Why, by a prov- 
idential education, should he have been brought up 
"in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," and 
also have become " learned in all the wisdom of the 
Egyptians?" It was impossible not to feel the force 
of the intimation which such a conjuncture of cir- 
cumstances made. It seemed to amount to hardly 
less than an assurance that God had some great work 
for Moses to do ; that he was a chosen vessel for some 
achievement which should promote the glory of God, 
and carry forward His grand and merciful designs 
in the world. Parental fidelity had imbued the heart 
and mind of Moses, from his childhood, with a knowl- 
edge of God's truth; of His promises and purposes, 
so far as in that age of the world, God had been 
pleased to reveal them. He grew up with the ele- 
vating — not pride-inspiring — for it is his distinctive 
praise that he was the meekest of men; he grew up 
with the elevating consciousness that he was a dis- 
tinguished member of a distinguished race ; distin- 
guished by that God who puts honor upon men, not 
to fill their minds with thoughts of themselves, but 
of Him; of their responsibilities; of what He ex- 
pects of them, and has put in their power to effect. 
" Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory 
in his wisdom; neither let the mighty man glory in 
his might; let not the rich man glory in his riches; 
but let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he un- 
derstandeth and knoweth me ; that I am the Lord 
which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and right- 



296 



SERMONS. 



eousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, 
saith the Lord." 

And this was the spirit of Moses; his divine en- 
dowments did but make him glory in the Lord. In 
the seventh chapter of the Acts, the deacon Stephen, 
in that speech of his which preceded his martyrdom, 
and which comprises a rapid survey of the wonder- 
ful history of God's people, says of Moses, "And 
when he was full forty years old, it came into his 
heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. 
And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended 
him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote 
the Egyptian : for he supposed his brethren would 
have understood how that God by his hand would 
deliver them; but they understood not. And the 
next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, 
and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, 
ye are brethren ; why do ye wrong one to another ? 
But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, 
saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? 
"Wilt thou kill me as thou diddest the Egyptian yes- 
terday? Then fled Moses at this saying; and was a 
stranger in the land of Madian." And forty years 
more of life rolled away, before so much as the first 
step was taken, to bring about the grand result which 
had been the vision of so many of the earlier years 
of the life of Moses. "And when forty years were 
expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of 
Mount Sina an angel of the Lord, in a flame of fire 
in a bush;" "and he looked, and behold the bush 
burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. 
And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this 



THE OBLIGATION OF DUTY. 



297 



great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when 
the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called 
unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, 
Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And He 
said draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off 
thy feet." Almighty God will have outward acts as 
signs and tokens of reverence, though He does know 
what is in the heart. " Put off thy shoes from off' 
thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy 
ground. Moreover He said, I am the God of thy 
father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and 
the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he 
was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I 
have surely seen the affliction of My people which 
are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of 
their task-masters, for I know their sorrows; and I 
am come down to deliver them out of the hands of 
the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land 
unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing 
with milk and honey; unto the place of the Ca- 
naanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the 
Perezzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now, 
therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel 
is come unto Me: and I have also seen the oppres- 
sion wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come 
now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, 
that thou mayest bring forth My people, the children 
of Israel, out of Egypt." 

The time had at length arrived ! The most sacred 
and cherished anticipations of Moses' life were on 
the eve of fulfilment. The deliverance prophecy 
had pledged, and which the events of his own life 

26 



298 



SERMONS. 



had so remarkably intimated, he should be the hon- 
ored instrument of effecting: an intimation which 
God's own immediate call had now confirmed; that 
deliverance was now set before him as the great 
work of his life: the work which would give signifi- 
cance and value to all that providential preparation 
by which Almighty God had fitted him for its accom- 
plishment. It is true, we look at Moses, at that 
crisis in his history, that moment of golden oppor- 
tunity and we had almost said, accomplished hopes ; 
we look at him, with a knowledge of all his after 
glorious and successful agency in the fulfilment of 
God's purposes. But it seems to us, as though the an- 
tecedents of his history, the memory of his life up 
to that time, would have made his heart bound at 
God's call, and have thrown the whole energy of his 
nature into an immediate, and more than cordial, 
compliance with God's will and purpose. 

How different was the fact! "And Moses said 
unto God, who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, 
and that I should bring forth the children of Israel 
out of Egypt?" The remainder of the chapter in 
which these words occur, with half of the next, is 
occupied with a detail of God's condescending efforts 
to overcome the reluctance of Moses to enter upon 
this mission, to fulfil his own. or what for years had 
been his own most cherished hopes. True, he was 
eighty, and at eighty, men are usually disinclined to 
embark in any new and trying undertaking. But it 
is commonly, for reasons which seem to have had no 
place in the case of Moses; because bodily powers 
are failing, and the mind shrinks from taxing its de- 



THE OBLIGATION OF DUTY. 



299 



dining faculties. But forty years later, he died at 
the age of a hundred and twenty; after the weighty 
cares and toils of the journey through the wilder- 
ness, after the burden and heat of a day such as no 
other lawgiver ever experienced — so is it written of 
him, " his eye was not dim, nor his natural force 
abated:" the inspired record of his age correspond- 
ing with the marked expressions applied, in both the 
Old and New Testaments to his infancy, that he was 
"a goodly, proper child, exceeding fair." E"or had 
his forty years banishment from Egypt, opened to 
him, a sphere of life, too rich in opportunities of use- 
fulness to admit of its desertion then. If it had, 
God's will would have been his sufficient warrant for 
that desertion. But it had not: the record seems 
most clearly to prove the contrary. " ISTow Moses 
kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest 
of Midian." Any honest employment, is always 
better than idleness, that snare of the devil; and no 
man is great enough to make idleness ever respect- 
able. To tend a flock was not unworthy the man, 
who had as high a mission as ever fell to the lot of a 
human being. There is a moral dignity in the spec- 
tacle of him who was learned in all the wisdom of 
the Egyptians, and destined to an unparalleled emi- 
nence, there is a moral dignity in the spectacle of 
such an one, so employed. 

But there was nothing in those pastoral cares, to 
warrant a moment's hesitation, or indecision, when 
as the last quarter of a century of life began its 
course, the message came from God, " Come now, 
and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest 



300 



SERMONS. 



bring forth my people, the children of Israel out of 
Egypt." But hesitation and indecision there was. 
It may have been the result of his long separation 
from God's people; of his associations during that 
forty years banishment; of self-distress; of want of 
faith. It can hardly have been less than a fault, 
that when God called, Moses should have refused; 
or even so much as raised the question, whether he 
was the proper man for the work, or the work a 
proper one for him. Yet so it was; the fact is in 
the record, when God called, he refused for reasons 
which he found in himself, and in the work which 
God had given him to do. "And Moses said, who 
am I that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I 
should bring forth the children of Israel out of 
Egypt?" 

Do you ask, are there any aged among us, called 
of God as Moses was, to enter upon, what may prop- 
erly be considered the great work of life, and who 
yet like Moses hesitate or refuse? Are there any, 
young or old, who are manifesting such a spirit? 
What is the great work of life ? What has God given 
us our being for, and afforded us the privileges and 
opportunities of the past? Has God ever, in any 
way, said to any one, " Come and I will send thee" 
to make a fortune ; to build up an extensive and 
lucrative business, to achieve professional success, to 
establish thyself in life; to secure for thyself the un- 
restrained indulgence of taste, or appetite, or pas- 
sion ? Are they living up to the true end and aim of 
life, who have no higher aims than these? Is the 
legitimate object of the son's home life and his edu- 



THE OBLIGATION OF DUTY. 



301 



cation attained, when he proves himself an efficient 
and successful man of business? Is the daughter all 
that could be desired, when on the threshold of 
womanhood, she is qualified to meet all the claims 
of social and domestic life ? 

Ah! my brethren, all this may be — while yet the 
true, the chief work of life, may as little have been 
entered upon, as the work of delivering the Israelites 
had been entered upon, while Moses was yet keep- 
ing his flock in the desert. Business, professional 
pursuits, social and domestic duties, may all form 
part of the work of life; and do, in the cases of those 
who are living for the true end of the being God 
has given them. They may be, " not slothful in busi- 
ness," who are also "fervent in spirit, serving the 
Lord." But the great and true end of life — that we 
should be " brought out of darkness into light and 
from the power of Satan unto God; " that this world 
should be the scene of diligent and earnest prepara- 
tion for that which is to come, that here our peace 
should be made with God through Jesus Christ our 
Lord, so that there we may dwell with God in life 
everlasting; this great and true end of life, by what 
multitudes is it forgotten or neglected ! Years are 
suffered to go by, and in such ways, that they are but, 
to use a strong expression of God's word, "heaping 
up wrath against the day of wrath." God is forgot- 
ten; God's holy laws disregarded; the Saviour's 
mercy slighted ; the Spirit's motions resisted ; the 
great and merciful purpose of Almighty God in Crea- 
tion and Redemption, so far as the individual is con- 
cerned, made of none effect; God's call, " Come and 

26* 



302 



SERMONS. 



I will send thee; repent, believe; obey the Gospel," 
is responded to, with excuses which put off, as though 
it were an evil day, the time for seeking and serving 
the Lord with the whole heart. 

Moses was already a man of God, and had been 
all his life, when he was called to the special work 
God intended he should do. His backwardness to 
enter upon that work, may, therefore, most properly 
be regarded as addressing its instruction to Chris- 
tians. Do we never hear from their lips, I cannot 
do it: I do not like to do it: I have no taste or capa- 
city for that sort of work, when some scheme of use- 
fulness is set before them? Some "work and labor 
of love" which will promote God's glory and ad- 
vance the progress and prosperity of His Church ? 
Such Christians neither make work for themselves, 
nor do that, which is providentially made for them 
by circumstances, or by those whose office and duty 
it is, to set works of charity and piety before them. 
They are a sort of dead weights on every Christian 
enterprise. They have no zeal themselves, and do 
but dampen the zeal of others, so far as they 
have any influence. Oh ! let us all beware of such a 
spirit ! With a Master and only Saviour who has 
laid us under infinite obligations ; with talents that 
are susceptible of employment for holy ends, " what- 
soever our hand findeth to do, let us do it with all our 
might." Is it to teach in the'Sunday School ? to labor 
with the needle for most sacred ends? to visit the 
poor and the needy ? to aid by our gifts, or our free 
exertions, as we have opportunity in the various ways 
opened to us, which may enhance the usefulness of 



t 

THE OBLIGATION OF DUTY. 303 

the parish, or tend to record the perpetual ministra- 
tion here of the comfortable gospel of Christ? Is it 
to assist in sending the word of life to the less favored 
parts of our own, or of foreign lands ? Let us not 
think of asking in a spirit of sloth, or unwarranted 
diffidence, or in any other spirit, which will tie our 
hands and keep us idle, when we ought to be at 
work, "who am I, that I should do this?" 

"Who are you? Why you are a Christian — a blood- 
bought sinner — a probationer for eternity — a stranger 
and a pilgrim upon earth, bound and pledged by the 
most sacred vows human hearts can cherish, or human 
lips utter to bring forth "much fruit;" to do what 
you can, on every occasion, w T hich puts before you a 
practicable opportunity of usefulness. You are not 
to wait till God shall speak to you " out of a bush 
burning with fire and not consumed:" till some re- 
markable intimation, such as no one else has received, 
shall show you what the Lord would have you to do. 
It is not thus He speaks to us now. The voice of 
the circumstances and opportunities of daily life ; 
the voice of God's word; the voice of your spiritual 
pastor, are your ordained guides. By them does God 
say, "Come and I will send thee;" and the Chris- 
tian whose ear is open, whose heart is " ready to 
give and glad to distribute," and willing to work, 
and honestly desires to be led on in ways of self-de- 
nying usefulness, will be the Christian whose life and 
labors will not be in vain in the Lord. 

St. Paul's language at the end of life meant some- 
thing; yea, meant very much, "I have fought a good 
light, I have finished my course, I have kept the 



304 



SERMONS. 



faith." When the like time shall have come to us, 
we ought to be able to say the like thing. And, God 
being our Helper, we shall; if we make it the rule of 
our life, "never to be backward to duty." God's 
call to Moses was a call to liberty; to deliverance 
from bondage; to a glorious home in a land of divine 
promise. It is all of that when He says to you, 
"Seek ye the Lord, while He may be found; call ye 
upon Him while He is near." The bondage is that 
of "the world, the flesh, and the devil from which 
they only are set free, who come unto Christ, who 
Himself declares, " If the Son shall make you free, 
ye shall be free indeed." There is a "glorious lib- 
erty of the children of God." The penalty of sin, 
God's unquenchable wrath no longer threatens them ; 
they are free to love and serve the Saviour, who loved 
them and gave Himself for them ; and a home awaits 
them, when the toils of life shall be over, of endless 
peace and felicity. Oh ! say not then "who am I?" 
finding an excuse in what you are, or in what God 
has given 3-ou to do — but rather say with penitent 
Saul. "Lord what wilt Thou have me to do?" that 
so the Divine Master may be able to say, as in the 
days that are past, He said of faithful Abraham, "For 
I know him that he will command his children, and 
his household after him, and they shall keep the way 
of the Lord." 



SERMON XXIII. 



THE DUTY OF ATTENDING CHURCH. 

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner 
of some is. — Hebrews, x. 25. 

There was some danger in attending church, when 
this exhortation was penned. All who were known 
to be Christians were liable to persecution. To be 
seen among those who assembled together, as pro- 
fessed Christians therefore, was to run the risk of 
suffering for the sake of Christ. Now, my hearers, 
if such a state of things existed in our days, how 
many of you would feel, as though you might de- 
cline this risk ! How many of you would think you 
were discharged from all obligation to attend the 
services of the Church ! And yet an inspired Apos- 
tle, writing to Christians who lived in such circum- 
stances, speaks, by way of exhortation, of their "not 
forsaking the assembling of themselves together." 
Evidently he thought, that in spite of the danger to 
which it might expose them, it was a duty which they 
could not neglect with a safe conscience; and he 
adds, " as the manner of some is," with the evident 
intention of conveying the idea that their course was 
wrong, their neglect sinful. If it was a duty to at- 
tend church under such circumstances of exposure ; 

305) 



306 



SERMONS. 



can it be less a duty now, when by the mercy of 
God's good providence, we may do so with none to 
molest or make us afraid? Common sense will fur- 
nish a reply. Again, God blessed the seventh day 
and hallowed it, set it apart for His more immediate 
worship and service. On the first day of the week, 
which by the authority of Christ's own Apostles was 
substituted in the place of the seventh day; the min- 
isters of Christ are engaged in preaching the gospel, 
explaining and enforcing the duties of men. And 
with obvious propriety they pursue this work at 
those places, in those temples which have been reared 
for the worship of God. "We are commanded by St. 
James, " Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers 
only," but if you are to be "not hearers only,'" it 
must certainly follow that you are to be hearers, and 
you cannot be hearers of the word unless you are 
present where the word is preached. 

The Jews had their tabernacle erected by divine 
command, and according to divine directions; their 
temple, which God owned as His house; and to at- 
tend upon the services performed at these places, 
was an important branch of their duties to God. 
The example of the Saviour and the practice of His 
Apostles and earliest disciples, all tend to establish 
the duty of " not forsaking the assembling of our- 
selves together." The obligation* of this duty is 
almost universally admitted, so clearly is it required 
in the word of God. But in regard to it, as well as 
many other duties, the opinions and practices of men 
are at complete variance: the manner of many in 
our days is precisely what the manner of some was 



THE DUTY OF ATTENDING CHURCH. 307 

in the Apostle's day, they " forsake the assembling 
of themselves together." To this neglect of duty 
must be attributed much of prevailing ignorance on 
the subject of religion, and much of the practical 
ungodliness which abounds. 

Those who do not attend church, seldom, if ever 
occupy the time it would acquire in diligently search- 
ing the Scriptures, or in any other employment cal- 
culated to have a beneficial tendency on the interests 
of their undying souls. While the ministers of 
Christ are endeavoring to teach men what they must 
do to be saved; such individuals are usually engaged 
in calculations of worldly gain; in the perusal of 
works, unprofitable perhaps at any time, certainly 
out of place at such a time; in pursuing some worldly 
amusement; or it may be, they are wasting their 
time in utter idleness, wandering about from place 
to place, as though they scarce knew how to wear 
away the tedious hours. That there may be reasons 
of sufficient weight to justify not attending church, 
is freely admitted. There may be a physical impossi- 
bility in the way ; as for instance, in the case of the 
sick; or of those who reside at great distances from 
the house of worship, and have not the means of con- 
veying themselves thither. The state of the weather, 
requiring particular caution on the part of those in 
delicate health, or peculiarly liable to disease; and 
the circumstances of particular families, are other 
excuses. Besides these there may be others still, 
growing out of the state of things in individual 
cases. Each person must of course be his own judge 
in every instance; since each must give an account 



308 



SERMONS. 



of himself to God, in this, as well as in everything 
else that he does. 

There are two rules, however, which may he sug- 
gested as guides in determining the validity of ex- 
cuses. First, if hindrances to attending church pre- 
sent themselves without "being sought for, they are, 
to say the least, likely to he of a character to deserve 
attention. Bat if you find yourselves endeavoring to 
discover or invent reasons why you cannot go to the 
house of God; you may be certain, that a sinful dis- 
inclination to duty is at work in your heart. You 
are only seeking for something to quiet the rebukes 
of conscience ; and if that be true which the Saviour 
has said, that after " some have heard the word;" 
listened to the preaching of the Gospel, " immedi- 
ately Satan cometh and snatcheth away the word 
out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be 
saved" — is there not reason to fear, that under the 
circumstances supposed, Satan may be suggesting 
doubts and hindrances; sending your thoughts in 
search of excuses, lest you should go to the house of 
God, and hear something by which you might be led 
to believe in Christ, and seek salvation ? You know 
that the devil is represented in the Bible "as a roar- 
ing lion, going about seeking whom he may devour." 
He is the sworn enemy of God and of your happi- 
ness ; and he is never more secure of his prey, than 
when he can persuade men to absent themselves, 
frequently or habitually, from the public services of 
God's house. Remember then that first rule for the 
guidance of your judgment, and be faithful in its 
application lest you fall into the hands of your great 
enemy. 



THE DUTY OF ATTENDING CHI7KCH. 309 

The second rule to be suggested is this. If the 
hindrances which present themselves, are not of such 
a character as would keep you from attending to 
worldly business or worldly amusements, they cer- 
tainly need not keep you from the house of God. 
Do you think, my hearers, that God will allow such 
contempt of Him and His commands to go unpun- 
ished ? Beware then, lest you render yourselves lia- 
ble to His indignation and wrath, by thus placing 
the worship and service of His house, beneath the 
claims of your business and pleasure. Sutler then 
no excuse to keep you from attending His courts, 
which when weighed in the balances of these rules 
will be found wanting. 

But there are some persons whose habitual ne- 
glect of this duty, seems to indicate that they have 
some standing excuse, different from any that have 
yet been alluded to. It is not the want of opportu- 
nity that keeps them away, for they have such op- 
portunities as often as the Lord's day comes round. 
It is not the want of leisure, for the sacred hours find 
them at full liberty to pursue their own inclinations. 
It is not the fear of exposure, for either they are in 
sound health, or if at all invalids, hesitate not to ex- 
pose themselves more at other times. What is it 
then ? Why are they negligent of so plain a duty ? 
It almost seems as if they were principled against 
obeying God in this matter. Let us search and ex- 
amine, why they thus make God their enemy, and 
join in league with Satan against their own souls. 
It may be, my hearers, that some of you are thus 
reasoning, and we ask you therefore, is it not some- 

27 



310 



SERMONS. 



thing to this effect, which excuses yon to your own 
consciences for neglecting what those consciences 
plainly tell you is your duty? So long as I am igno- 
rant what the gospel of Christ requires of me, so long 
I am not accountable for my neglect of these things. 
If I attend church, I may be made to see that I am 
living in sin, that I ought to act very differently from 
my present conduct. Should I see this, then I be- 
come accountable, and as I do not care to do what 
the Saviour requires, this accountability might ex- 
pose me to the punishment which is said to be de- 
nounced in the Bible against those who know, but 
neglect their duty. It will be safer for me then, to 
remain ignorant. And so I will not attend church. 
I will keep out of the way of being instructed as 
much as possible. Perhaps, you have never reas- 
oned the matter out in this way, but if you will look 
into your minds and watch their movements nar- 
rowly, you will soon discover that we have placed 
your own argument before you. But would you be 
willing to rest your hopes of escape from eternal 
death on such an argument, unless it were sound ? 
"Would you wish to deceive yourselves in so import- 
ant a matter ? Would you be willing to do what you 
were quite convinced would endanger your final sal- 
vation ? The attempt to justify yourself proves that 
you set some value on your souls; and strange as it 
may appear, you think it a regard for the safety of 
those souls, that keeps you away from church. 

But Christ Himself, who is to be your final Judge, 
has said, that this will be the rule of His judgment, 
" unto whomsoever much is given, from him shall 



THE DUTY OF ATTENDING CHURCH. 311 

much be required." If you always keep out of the 
way of being instructed in your duty to God; if you 
shun those books, persons, and places, where or 
whence you may learn God's will ; you may indeed, 
continue ignorant, to a certain extent. We add this 
qualification, because, in a land and day of such re- 
ligious privileges as our own, it is utterly impossible 
to continue in as dark a condition as the benighted 
heathen. You must hear something of religion, 
through some one of the agencies at work, so that 
you must learn that you are committing sin in neg- 
lecting it. And even, if no human lips ever convey 
to your ears, the warning and exhortations of the in- 
spired volume; that volume itself is constantly mak- 
ing an appeal to your hearts, silent though that 
appeal may be. It finds a place in every dwelling, 
for strange to say, however indifferent an individual 
may be to its contents; however wicked his life may 
be, he would blush to have it said, he did not own a 
Bible. He may never open that Holy Volume; it 
may occupy a place among the useless articles of his 
household, but it must be there. Yet every time 
that Book meets your eye it says, "I have a message 
from God unto you. You know that I am God's 
word. Come and be instructed in the way of salva- 
tion." The sight of a Christian minister too; know- 
ing as you all must know, the purpose for which he 
is ordained, is another appeal, even though you may 
never -listen to his voice. And the houses of God, 
reared for the purposes of worship and instruction in 
His word; they too, though voiceless, speak. 

Yet though in these various ways you may acquire 



312 



SERMONS. 



some slight and indistinct knowledge of God; you 
may, if you please, continue very ignorant of duty. 
And when, at the close of life, as you are about to be 
summoned to your last account, you remember the 
Saviour's rule of judgment, "unto whomsoever much 
is given, of him shall much be required;" when with 
trembling anxiety you enter upon a calculation of 
what you have received, in order to form some idea 
of what will be required of you : you may be able 
to say in a limited sense, that a knowledge of your 
duty to God and the Saviour has not been given to 
you; but will you be able to say that an opportunity 
of acquiring this knowledge was never given ? Must 
you not say, that a multitude of opportunities greater 
than you can number were given you ? Have you 
not lived; do you not live in a land where the open 
doors of God's houses solicit your entrance ? And 
do you think that your Judge will neglect to reckon 
these opportunities among the things you have re- 
ceived? Do you think they will not be added to 
swell up the sum of your privileges ? Do you think 
that Christ will not determine in your case, by com- 
paring what your life may have been, with what the 
Bible requires it should be ? You imagine that 
though the light of Christian knowledge has come 
into the world, yet, if you can only keep your eyes 
shut against it, you are safe. But hear the words of 
the Judge. "This is the condemnation, that light is 
come into the world, and men loved darkness rather 
than light, because their deeds were evil: for every 
one that doeth evil hateth the light, lest his deeds 
should be reproved." You imagine that if you can 



THE DUTY OF ATTENDING CHURCH. 313 

only keep ignorant of your duty to God and Christ 
as revealed in the Bible; you will not at the last day 
be judged according to the words written in that 
Book. He says, "He that rejecteth Me, and re- 
ceiveth not My words hath one that judgeth him; 
the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge 
him at the last day." 

Voluntary ignorance of duty, then, will not excuse 
any man for the neglect of that duty when he shall 
appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ. On the 
contrary, it will be only an aggravation of his guilt. 
The most serious, soul-condemning charge which 
will be laid against him will be this very fact, that 
he might have known his duty, but neglected the 
opportunities of doing so, which were afforded him. 
See, then, dear hearer, how your case stands. Either 
Christ, who is " the same yesterday, to-day, and for- 
ever," must change His rule of judgment, or you 
must change your course of life in reference to this 
duty of " assembling yourselves together." Unless 
one or the other of these changes shall be made, 
you will go to the Judgment-bar of your Redeemer 
only to be covered with shame and confusion of face. 

"But, brethren, we are persuaded better things 
of you, and things which accompany salvation, 
though we thus speak." You would not knowingly 
endanger your fortune, your health, the life or com- 
fort of your families. Surely, then, you will not 
endanger the interests of your undying souls, by 
neglecting to attend where you may, by the blessing 
of God on the efforts of His minister, be made wise 

2t* 



314 



SERMONS. 



unto salvation. My Christian brethren, remember 
if you would grow in grace and in the knowledge of 
your Lord and Saviour, you must use the means 
which He has appointed for this purpose. Of these, 
attendance upon the public services of His Church, 
is a most important one. Here you may unitedly 
approach the throne of grace to pour out your hearts 
before God. Here you may offer up the sacrifice of 
prayer and praise to the "Author of every good and 
perfect gift." Here you may listen to the word of 
His grace, as it is read to you in its purity from the 
sacred volume. Here you may afford to " the Watch- 
man for your souls " an opportunity of declaring 
unto you the whole counsel of God, and of encour- 
aging you in your progress towards that glorious 
"city which hath foundations whose builder and 
maker is God." 

Let nothing, then, which may be overcome, ever 
hinder you from appearing in these courts of the 
Lord, when they are thrown open for your benefit. 
Let the feelings of your hearts prompt you to utter 
the language of David : "I was glad when they said 
unto me, Let us go up unto the house of the Lord." 
Let not parents, as they value the peace of a dying 
hour, neglect to bring their children here. I say 
bring, for if you charge them to be present, and at- 
tend but seldom yourselves, they will feel only as if 
they were obeying you, and not as if they were dis- 
charging a duty towards God. Your child will not 
feel bound to do what you neglect. Oh ! it is a sad 
spectacle, and none the less so from the frequency 
of its occurrence, to see parents, by the all-prevailing 



THE DUTY OF ATTENDING CHURCH. 



315 



teaching of example, leading their children to neglect 
their Creator in the days of their youth. Come, 
then, fathers and mothers and children, with one 
heart and voice, glorify God in His Holy Temple, 
that so you may be of those who shall assemble to- 
gether in the courts on high, to join in heaven's 
everlasting anthems. 



SERMON XXIY. 



CHRISTIANS AS WITNESSES. 

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth 
walk not as other Gentiles walk. — Ephesians, iv. 17. 

There ought to be a difference between those who 
profess and call themselves Christians, and those who 
do not. And this is just what the Apostle authori- 
tatively insists on, in the text. He was writing to 
converted Gentiles or heathen ; and he enforced it 
upon them as a matter of Christian obligation, that 
henceforth, they should not walk as other Gentiles 
walked; that is, they should not live like their un- 
converted fellow-citizens; that they should be en- 
tirely different from them. 

Now the question immediately suggests itself, has 
this exhortation of St. Paul any sort of application 
to Christians now? He was writing to Christians 
who, a little while before, had been heathen. Of 
course they ought to have lived differently from their 
unconverted fellow-citizens. Of course there ought 
to have been a difference, between them and the 
heathen about them, who had not yet been won to 
the obedience of Christ. But Christians in our day, 
and in our country, never were heathen ; and there- 
fore it is said their cases are not parallel with those 
(316) 



CHRISTIANS AS WITNESSES. 



317 



of the Christians to whom St. Paul wrote. And 
while it was very proper that he should write to 
them, "that ye henceforth walk not as other Gen- 
tiles walk," his words cannot be employed now to 
enforce it upon Christians of our day and land, that 
they should be different from the people among 
whom they live. 

But let me ask the question, can any one suppose 
that all the Apostle meant to say was: Christians, do 
not worship idols; do not go to the temples where 
they are worshipped; do not partake of the feasts 
which the idolaters make in honor of their false 
gods ? Can any one suppose that all the Apostle in- 
sisted on, was some mere external marks of differ- 
ence between Christians and heathen? If we read 
what immediately follows the text we shall plainly 
perceive that the Apostle was thinking of something 
far deeper than surface differences. He proceeds to 
describe the condition of the yet unconverted Gen- 
tiles, and his description has even more reference to 
their inward state, than to their outward behavior, 
though both features are brought to notice. " This 
I say then, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gen- 
tiles walk ; in the vanity of their mind, having the 
understanding darkened; being alienated from the 
life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, 
because of the blindness of their hearts, who, being 
past feeling, have given themselves over to lascivious- 
ness to work all uncleanness with greediness." 

How much the Apostle speaks here, of the dark- 
ened states of their understandings, and the bad con- 
dition of their affections, as regards God. Evidently 



318 



SERMONS. 



when he wrote to the Ephesians, "that ye walk not 
as other Gentiles walk," his idea was; not merely 
that they should be distinguishable from idolaters by 
their outward practices, but that they should walk as 
children of light; that their behavior should differ 
from that of the people among whom they lived, in 
a manner answerable to their greater knowledge, 
stronger motives, and divinely imparted strength. 
His exhortation has, therefore, as legitimate an ap- 
plication to you, Christians, as it had to the Ephe- 
sian converts. You are just as much bound — and 
the Apostle's words are meant to tell you so — you 
are just as much bound to be different from the un- 
converted people among whom you live, as they 
were bound to be different from the unconverted 
people among whom they lived. Yes ! and if you 
should become all that as Christians you ought to 
be; the difference between you and those about you, 
who are not Christians, would be more nearly the 
same, with the difference which the Apostle insisted 
should exist between the Ephesians who were Chris- 
tians, and those who were not, than you perhaps 
suppose. If the Christians of this great city should 
be just what St. Paul wished the Christians of the 
great city of Ephesus should be, it would hold as 
good of the one, as of the other, that they walked 
not as the people among whom they lived walked. 

What sort of people do you suppose those other 
Gentiles were, whom the Christians of St. Paul's day 
must not resemble ? Do you think of them as fully 
and sufficiently described by the words of Bishop 
Heber's missionary hymn, "the heathen in their 



CHRISTIANS AS WITNESSES. 



319 



blindness, bow down to wood and stone?'' Do' you 
think of them as half-naked savages, bearing in their 
whole aspect the marks and tokens of ignorance and 
debasement ? There were such heathen in St. Paul's 
day, and there are such in ours. But the Ephesians 
were not such : they were the inhabitants of a cele- 
brated city of Asia Minor. It was principally famous 
for its magnificent temple of the goddess Diana, said 
to have been four hundred and twenty-five feet long, 
two hundred and twenty broad, to have had a hun- 
dred and twenty-seven pillars, sixty feet high, pre- 
sented by as man}^ kings: all the provinces of Asia 
contributed to the expenses of its building, and a 
long series of years was consumed in its erection. 
The arts flourished there. We read in the Acts, of 
Demetrius the silver-smith and his craftsmen who 
made silver shrines for Diana, and who evidently 
opposed Christianity because it threatened to hurt 
their trade; we read of the burning of not less than 
twenty thousand dollars' worth of books, when the 
Apostles had convinced their owners, that it was a 
sort of literature that dishonored G-od and did harm 
to society. There was a sort of civilization at Ephe- 
sus, which stripped heathenism somewhat of the 
more odious and disgusting features, which it presents 
in a barbarous people. You might have found at 
Ephesus people of taste, and refinement, and fashion ; 
people whose dress and furniture, whose style of liv- 
ing and equipage, would have made their society and 
acquaintance sought after and desired. You might 
have found there fathers and mothers, sons and 
daughters, who, if they were theoretically heathen, 



320 



SERMONS. 



thought as little, and cared as little about their reli- 
gion, as multitudes in our day think and care about 
the Christian religion. Of course, the moral tone of 
society, in a heathen city, whatever may have been 
the kind and degree of its civilization, was vastly 
below that of a Christian city. The disinterred re- 
mains of Pompeii and Herculaneum afford humili- 
ating proof of this. But as it was in the days that 
were before the flood, and for essentially the same 
reason, because "the heart is deceitful above all 
things and desperately wicked," so was it at Ephesus ; 
" they bought; they sold ; they builded ; they planted; 
they married; they were given in marriage," and 
knew not, yea, knew not anything it most concerned 
them to know. 

If you had lived in those days, with your present 
opinions and feelings on questions of morality and 
religion, you might have made the acquaintance of 
many a man and woman of Ephesus; and while you 
felt constrained to say of them, as you say perhaps 
of some of your present acquaintances, they have 
strange notions on religious subjects; you might yet 
have found them pleasant, agreeable, companiona- 
ble people. You might have sat at their tables and 
visited their houses, and discussed with them ques- 
tions of taste and dress, of science and literature, of 
fashion and the fine arts, aud only now and then, 
by some single observation, have been reminded that 
you were in a Gentile or heathen house, and that 
you were conversing with some of the "other Gen- 
tiles " or heathen, of whom St. Paul speaks. Doubt- 
less there were multitudes of the Ephesians who 



CHRISTIANS AS WITNESSES. 321 

were as bad, if not worse than the most abandoned 
among ourselves. Even their religious rites were, 
many of them, of the most demoralizing character. 
It was in some respects an advantage that the peo- 
ple did not think or care much about their religion ; 
those who were most attentive to its rites and cere- 
monies, might easily have been least like what Chris- 
tians ought to be. "When, then, an Ephesian be- 
came a Christian, while he would necessarily be very 
unlike many of his unconverted fellow-citizens, in 
the whole aspect of his external behavior, there were 
others, doubtless, from whom, if he differed as a true 
Christian ought to have differed, the difference would 
have been more in the inward temper and disposi- 
tion of the soul. 

So will it be now: an individual becomes a Chris- 
tian; begins by God's grace to live a godly life; 
how widely or how obviously does he differ from 
those w T ho are not Christians? The difference is 
marked on the outside, if I may so express it, if you 
compare him with the drunkard, the debauchee, the 
Sabbath-breaker, the individual whose whole deport- 
ment shows that he fears not God, neither regards 
man; but if you compare him with another person 
who, while he may be as really at enmity with God, 
is yet adorned by all the social virtues; the real dif- 
ference is mainly internal ; the different principles, 
motives, feelings, and aims by which the two are 
actuated and governed. " That ye walk not as other 
Gentiles walk," is then an exhortation which God's 
word addresses to you. It as truly enjoins by Di- 
vine authority that Philadelphians who are Chris- 

28 



322 



SERMONS. 



tians shall differ from those who are not, as it origin- 
ally enjoined, that Ephesians who were Christians 
should differ from those who were not. 

Let an illustration bring clearly to your view the 
ground upon which this requisition rests. Suppose 
this country were at war with another country, and 
that, during the contest, the soldiers of that other 
country should change the color of their uniform ; 
would that change alter their relations to us, or ex- 
onerate our soldiery from duties that had been in- 
cumbent before the change was made? Would we 
not say they are enemies as much as ever — our re- 
lations and duties towards them are unchanged? 
Those who were not Christians at Ephesus, and 
those who are not Christians in our day, are soldiers 
in one and the same army, only differently uni- 
formed. In Ephesus, they wore the uniform of hea- 
thenism ; that is, they were characterized by habits 
of life peculiar to the system under which they lived; 
now they wear another dress — other habits and man- 
ners prevail. But underneath the differing outside 
is the same darkened understanding, the same 
worldly-mindedness, the same practical ignorance 
of God, and enmity towards Him. Multitudes in 
our city and among ourselves, some everything that 
is bad, others everything that is good ; multitudes are 
as far from God, as little likely to get to heaven, as 
much in danger of hell, as if they had lived in Ephe- 
sus and worshipped the great goddess Diana. You 
know there may be substantial resemblance, with 
circumstantial differences; and this is true of all who 
know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord 



CHRISTIANS AS WITNESSES. 



323 



Jesus Christ. There is such a thing, and it really 
means something — there is such a thing as giving in 
the adherence of our understanding and affections to 
God and our Saviour ; as taking Christ as in very 
deed our Lord, and Master, and only Saviour; and 
those who have not done this, though they may be 
as wide asunder in character and conduct as the utter 
profligate and the man of uniform morality, are yet 
both enemies of God; both sinners against Him and 
their own souls; and to every Christian, God says, 
u That ye walk not as other Gentiles walk." 

If there is not, so to speak, a real unlikeness in 
Christians to those who are not Christians, it can 
only he, because their Christianity is a mere name 
and does not really amount to anything. Have not 
Christians an aim which those who are not Chris- 
tians do not profess to have? And is not that aim 
so high, so important, so solemn, that it must influ- 
ence and mould the whole character and conduct? If 
Christians really mean and desire to please God, to 
reach heaven, to secure the everlasting happiness of 
the future world ; it is impossible that they should 
be just like people who have no such meaning and 
desire. "Who can have a great care on his mind, and 
be just the same as if he had no care? Who can 
feel that he is engaged in a matter of the most vital 
consequence, and be altogether as he would be, if he 
were not so engaged ? There may be very little ex- 
ternally, to distinguish the true Christian from the 
better sort of those who " care for none of these 
things :" they may go to church as punctually as he 
does: they may be as free from vice as he is; may 



324 



SERMONS. 



neither swear, nor drink, nor lie, nor defraud, nor 
do anything to impair the respect and esteem in 
which they are deservedly held by society. Yet for 
all this, there are essential differences between them 
and the pardoned sinner who is intent npon doing 
God's will and reaching heaven. They have not the 
same aim. The Christian has an aim of his own, 
which no one who is not a Christian has; and it 
makes him diverse from all who are about him. 
There may be resemblances in many things; but 
there is a real dissimilarity and must be. 

"Why, see how it is in this life, when an individual 
has an important aim, feels its power and is bent 
upon reaching it ! The surgeon, for example, is 
about to perform a rare operation; one in which suc- 
cess will greatly heighten his professional reputation, 
bring unspeakable relief to suffering humanity, and 
gladden a widely-extended circle of anxious hearts; 
and yet it is one in which he may fail, and failure 
must be associated with disappointment, distress, 
and death. He is surrounded by those who are to 
be mere spectators of his skill; who feel, at most, 
but a professional interest in his attempt; whose 
heart will neither joy nor bleed at his success or fail- 
ure. How coolly he prepares himself for his critical 
work ! TVitk what an unfaltering hand he takes his 
instruments! You see not, perhaps, one outward 
token that he has anything more at stake in this 
effort than those about him : his tread is as firm, his 
voice is as clear, his hand is as steady. But could 
you look upon his inner man; could his heart, so 
to speak, become visible, you would account that he 



CHRISTIANS AS WITNESSES, 



325 



was indeed a different man, from those who stand 
around as mere witnesses of his skill ; his mind would 
present an aspect, essentially unlike those compara- 
tively uninterested spectators: his aim, high, import- 
ant, fraught with momentous consequences would 
have made its mark upon his whole being ; made 
him another sort of man from what he would have 
been without that aim! 

So with the Christian : he has an aim, and it must 
make its mark ; he is bent upon success. He is em- 
barked upon an undertaking in which life and death 
are the inevitable issues — eternal life and eternal 
death. Can he be as those who have no such aim ? 
Is such a thing any more possible on natural princi- 
ples, than it is admissible on the principles of the 
Gospel ? It cannot be. A human being w T ith a Chris- 
tian's aim, so high, so holy, of such eternal conse- 
quences, must materially differ from all others. That 
aim will have an operation on his whole deportment, 
on his amusements, his pursuits, his reading, his as- 
sociations, his friendships. There will not be a de- 
partment of his thoughts, his feelings, his actions, 
in which its presence and influence will not be felt. 
A sinner, redeemed by the precious blood of the im- 
mortal Son of God, made spiritually alive by the 
power of the Holy Ghost; on his way, through a 
life of abounding dangers and temptations, to that 
rest which remaineth for the people of God! If 
such an one walks as other Gentiles walk; if such 
an one differs not from those who are about him; 
from the unrenewed and the unconverted who have 
no aim but on this side the grave; then indeed, we 

28* 



326 



SERMONS. 



might well say, "there is nothing in religion !" But 
the Apostle's words are express, "that ye henceforth, 
walk not as other Gentiles walk : " and elsewhere 
he says, insisting upon the same thing in more gen- 
eral terms, "And be not conformed to this world, 
but be ye transformed, by the renewing of your 
minds." The figures which our Saviour employs 
embody the same requisition; "ye are the light of 
the world," "ye are the salt of the earth." Is there 
no difference between the light, and the darkness 
which it is to illuminate ? Is there no difference 
between the purifying, preserving salt, and the cor- 
rupting, decaying mass it is to act upon ? And must 
not Christians if they are to be the light of the world 
and the salt of the earth, be materially unlike those 
who are walking in the darkness of unbelief and sin? 

Why, the world itself expects it, and insists upon 
it ! Christians who do not seem what Christians 
ought to be, are the great stumbling-blocks in the 
way of those " who know not God and obey not the 
Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ." They help the 
irreligious to excuse themselves to themselves. They 
help them to forget that, after all, there are but two 
roads that human beings can be pursuing; the one, 
the broad road that leadeth to destruction ; the other, 
the narrow way that leadeth unto life. The children 
of this world, those who are living for time, and not 
for eternity, look upon those Christians whose re- 
ligion appears to be only a name, and say to them- 
selves, "Well, if they are on the way to heaven, we 
have no great reason to be alarmed or anxious about 
ourselves; if they are safe, we cannot be in any very 



CHRISTIANS AS WITNESSES. 



327 



great danger." Whereas Christians who "walk not 
as other Gentiles walk;" who, without any mere 
affectation of seriousness, any mere outside show 
of godliness, are yet sincerely and thoroughly in 
earnest to " be good and to do good;" who natu- 
rally, from the influence of their high and holy and 
constant aim, endeavor in word and deed to please 
God ; to avoid even the appearance of evil ; to do 
all such good works as " God has before prepared 
that they should walk in them;" Christians who 
seem genuine because they are genuine ; these are 
they who, while they are " daily proceeding in all 
virtue and godliness of living," are honoring God 
and doing untold good to all around them. Such 
Christians was it that St. Paul desired to surround 
himself with; Christians whose earnest, living ex- 
cellence should be a standing proof of the worth 
and efficacy of the gospel of the grace of God; 
Christians in whose earthly career he could find un- 
feigned satisfaction; and whom he hoped to present 
unto Christ as crowns of His rejoicing in the last 
great day. 

And such we would, that you all should be, who 
have been admitted into the fellowship of Christ's 
religion; that ye should not walk as they walk, who 
have made no such vows as you have made; who 
have no such hopes as you profess to have; who are 
actuated by no such aim as your paramount aim. 
" This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, 
that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk." 
"Walk as children of the light;" as those who have 
been taught of God ; as those who have not in word 



328 



SERMONS. 



only, but in deed and in truth renounced the world, 
the flesh, and the devil ; and who, putting your whole 
trust and confidence in God's mercy through Christ, 
desire above all things and are daily endeavoring 
"so to pass through things temporal that you may 
not finally lose the things eternal." 

When St. Paul cautioned the Christians of his 
day that they should not walk as other Gentiles 
walked; it was not because he felt no interest, no 
concern, about those other Gentiles. He did care 
for their souls ; he was anxious for, and did expect, 
the conversion of many of them. It was the very 
interest and concern he took in the unconvinced and 
unconverted, that made him deeply anxious that the 
good example of Christians should help to give force 
and efficacy to his preaching. So now, if we call 
upon you who are Christians to be unlike those who 
are not, it is, in fact, our solicitude for their welfare 
that urges us to do so. It is our heart's desire and 
prayer that they too may be saved. We cherish the 
hope that every one of you who has thus far come 
to the house of God, unprepared to surrender his 
heart and live to the Lord who bought him, will, at 
last, be fully persuaded to become a Christian; that 
before that stroke of death shall fall which will end 
all labors and hopes in your behalf, you may be in- 
duced to seek the Lord. True it is, that as weeks 
and months of your short and uncertain lives roll by, 
and no progress seems to be made towards that grand 
end; as truths and motives which ought to move 
and influence you at once, seem inoperative and un- 
influential; the spirit of discouragement sometimes 



CHRISTIANS AS WITNESSES 



329 



knocks for admission at the pastor's heart; yet still 
the voice of his solemn obligations bids him faint 
not, nor grow weary, and the promise of his God 
utters its consolatory assurance, " For in due season 
we shall reap, if we faint not;" and he goes on pray- 
ing and preaching, and watching and hoping; hoping 
that the spirit of unbelief may be cast out; hoping 
that the eyes of the young and the mature may be 
opened to see the true Light; hoping that the season 
of questioning and cavilling, of objecting and post- 
poning, may at last come to an end, and be suc- 
ceeded by the season of serious and earnest atten- 
tion to the vast concerns of an eternal state. " £Tow, 
then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God 
did beseech you by us, we pray you, in Christ's stead, 
be ye reconciled to God." 



SERMON XXY. 



FIRMNESS IN DUTY. 

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into 
his house; and his windows being open in his chamber towards 
Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his kuees three times a day, and 
prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. — 
Daniel, vi. 10. 

There are few lessons which Christians need to 
learn of greater practical importance than that which 
is taught by this part of the history of Daniel. He 
had the courage to do what he knew to be right. 
He added to his faith virtue, by which we are to un- 
derstand courage. You know his history. Envious 
men had persuaded the king to pass a decree, that 
for thirty days no prayer should be made to any one 
but the earthly monarch. They knew Daniel was in 
the habit of praying daily to the King of kings; 
that he considered it his duty to do so; and they felt 
persuaded, that he would continue to discharge that 
duty whatever might be the consequences. They 
were confident that if the king passed a law, mak- 
ing prayer to God criminal, Daniel would obey the 
higher law which he knew made prayer to God a 
duty. They succeeded in persuading the king to 
pass such a law, and the penalty of disobeying it was, 
( 330 ) 



FIRMNESS IN DUTY. 



331 



that whoever did so should be cast into the den of 
lions. 

Now there is hardly a consideration which, in 
our day, deters Christians from doing what they 
know to be right; which might not have sug- 
gested itself to the mind of Daniel. If he prayed 
to God; did what he perceived and felt was his duty, 
he would suffer great loss. In fact, he would be 
stripped of all the living he had. He would exchange 
great temporal prosperity, for temporal adversity as 
great. As it seemed almost certain he would lose his 
life ; for what other result could be expected, if he 
should be cast into the den of lions? the loss of 
property was of the less consequence to himself per- 
sonally, and the less to be considered in determining 
what he would do. But those who care very little 
for property, on their own individual account, may 
dread the loss of it, from the bearing that loss is cer- 
tain to have on others. And so, while Daniel may 
have been indifferent to such a consideration, so far 
as he himself was concerned, it may have had weight 
when its relations to others whom he would fain 
have benefited, were had in view. We do not sup- 
pose that the apprehension of such loss caused him 
one moment's hesitation. But evidently here was a 
consideration which would have had weight with 
many a mind, aye, with many a one who had taken 
God's vows upon him; and if I had been in Daniel's 
case, or any one of you, Christians, it would have 
been our duty to do just what Daniel did ; to have 
stripped ourselves of our fortunes, rather than sin 
against God by neglecting the duty of daily prayer 
to His divine Majesty. 



332 



SERMONS, 



~No prospect of retaining, or acquiring property 
should ever be allowed to lead a Christian into any- 
known sin. Never should he be willing to say, or 
do anything against his conscience, however profit- 
able, in a temporal point of view, his doing so might 
promise to be. In conducting his business, he should 
never resort to any practices which the word of God 
condemns. They may be almost universal. He 
ma} 7 gain the reputation of being wise and prudent, 
and of shrewdness and tact, by adopting them; and 
expose himself to the imputation of being over- 
righteous, over-scrupulous, not fit to contend success- 
fully in the strife of business, by refusing to adopt 
them. 'No doubt there were men who pitied Daniel 
as a poor fool, when they saw him, giving up such a 
home as he had, with all the comforts and conven- 
iences of life, rather than go against his conscience; 
rather than not do what he knew was right in the 
sight of God. But he had the courage of a true be- 
liever, the moral nerve to do his duty. If men 
thought him a fool, he was truly wise. He could no 
more weigh money against a good conscience, than a 
man would weigh money against the saving of his 
life. And so he prayed on, did his duty, kept a con- 
science void of offence towards God; and though he 
did not, at all, do it upon calculation; though it was, 
in no degree, a stroke of policy, but an act of faith 
and godly courage, yet the result showed that hon- 
esty towards God had been even the best policy. 
God's blessing can, and often does, make up to Chris- 
tians what they risk, for the sake of being faithful to 
Him ; and, in no case, whatever evils and losses they 



FIRMNESS IN DUTY. 



333 



may actually suffer, in no case, will they ever have 
just reason to regret that they had courage to do 
what was just and right towards God. 

But there are greater trials to the Christian, some- 
times, than the apprehension of mere pecuniary loss, 
as the consequence of fidelity to duty. There are 
timid, apprehensive spirits, to whom the prospect of 
being brought into conflict with the bold and harsh 
and overbearing, is often enough to deter from what 
yet their own consciences admonish them is their 
duty. They love peace. They would fain avoid all 
contentions and strife of words, and they are tempted 
to purchase what they so much desire, even at the 
cost of keeping quiet when they ought to speak, and 
of abstaining from what they yet are fully sensible is 
their duty. The irreligious with whom they are as- 
sociated, are allowed to exercise an influence and 
control over their words and actions, which is denied 
to that to which it properly belongs; their own con- 
victions of right and duty; their own deliberate 
judgment of what really becomes them as Christians. 
For lack of courage, which is as truly a Christian 
grace as faith, and to be as assiduously cultivated ; 
for lack of courage, they do those things they ought 
not to do, and leave undone those things they ought 
to do. They decline responsibility where they ought 
to assume it; they refuse to exercise authority and 
control where God has clearly made it their duty ; 
they give place to evil in some form; or to others 
who are its advocates and defenders ; when determ- 
ined resistance, however painful to their feelings, 
is a matter of plainest obligation. 

29 



334 



SERMONS. 



We read in Scripture of a parent who brought ter- 
rible evils on himself for want of this necessary 
courage, " because his sons made themselves vile and 
he restrained them not." He did occasionally gently 
rebuke, he did make amiable protests. But his 
family never were made to feel, that there was over 
them a parent to whom Almighty God had com- 
mitted authority, for edification and not for destruc- 
tion; an authority which on every proper occasion 
he had the courage to use. Influence is uot author- 
ity; and yet, alas, how often, in the control and man- 
agement of their children; in the education of their 
children ; do parents rely almost entirely on their in- 
fluence; and when that is found insufficient and 
ineffectual, as very often it is; do they abandon 
themselves to the current of impetuous youthful 
wills, and ill-regulated youthful feelings and desires; 
and practically commit to the hands of undutiful 
children, those reins of government which Almighty 
God, for the wisest reasons, has committed to them, 
and will hold them responsible for the use of. In 
domestic and social life; on the part of Christian 
parents and on the part of Christians; in all their 
various relations and associations, there is continual 
need of a godly courage. They must have it, or it 
is impossible they should have a conscience void of 
offence towards God and towards man. They will 
not be, to the extent to which they ought to be, the 
exponents and representatives of the principles they 
profess; of the religion of which they are the disci- 
ples. They will take the hue and tone of those with 
whom they are associated, and be made the medium 



FIRMNESS IN DUTY, 



335 



of expressing their unchristian tempers and feelings; 
of endorsing or seeming to endorse, their unworthy 
and unchristian conduct. 

I tell you, Christians, young and old, you have 
characters of your own to sustain ; you have princi- 
ples of your own to be faithful to, and to act upon; 
you have a divine Lord and Master to be loyal to; 
and you must see to it, that no want of Christian 
courage shall cause you to be lacking. Associated, 
as you necessarily must be, with those who in all 
these respects differ from yourselves, it is to be antici- 
pated, that there will be occasions when there shall 
be practical disagreement; when what they think 
right and proper, will be entirely different from what 
you know to be right and proper; when your own 
consciences will admonish you, that if you feel and 
speak and act like a Christian, you will feel and 
speak and act very differently from those, from whom 
it is most painful for you to differ; from whom you 
feel it is impossible you should differ, without dis- 
turbing the peacefulness of your relations, and call- 
ing down upon yourselves those " sharp, burning 
arrows, even bitter words." 

Through much tribulation, our Master's word as- 
sures us, " we must enter into the kingdom of God," 
and there is tribulation in the necessity laid upon 
amiable, sensitive, peace-loving, Christian hearts of 
coming into collision with those who would fain, in- 
tentionally or unconsciously, betray them into evil, 
or somehow make them responsible for, what they 
are satisfied is wrong. Christians are to follow after 
the things which make for peace. In domestic, and so- 



536 



SERMONS. 



$ial, and public life, they can win no more blessed 
character than that of peace-makers. Only they 
must take care they do not purchase peace and quiet, 
at a price they have no right to pay. They must 
take care never to be at peace with their fellow- 
beings, at the expense of being at enmity with God; 
at variance with the principles and precepts of that 
blessed Gospel which is their law of life. 

You remember how it is written, "£fow when 
they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they took 
knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus." 
Society is to learn from the boldness, the godly cour- 
age of Christians, what a marked influence upon 
character and conduct is exerted by that faith in 
Jesus, that habit of prayer to Him, which character- 
izes true Christians. Society is to be taught, not 
that Christians are people always ready to be raising 
issues upon questions of no possible moment; not 
that they find satisfaction in differing as widely as 
possible from others; but that, where real questions 
of right and wrong are concerned, Christians have a 
rule to go by, from which they are not to be induced 
to depart, by any regard to the painful personal con- 
sequences which may result from their unswerving 
adherence to that rule; that they have a higher alle- 
giance than that to earthly friends or kindred; that 
they must not be expected to lend themselves, di- 
rectly or indirectly, to the views and feelings, the 
judgments and practices of those who do not profess 
to be governed by " the law of the spirit of life in 
Christ Jesus." 

Our Saviour's words have taught us to expect, that 



FIRMNESS EN DUTY. 



33T 



in the carrying out inter all the details of daily life, 
his Christian principles, a Christian's foes may be 
those of his own household. That Daniel would 
gladly haye been at peace with all men; that he 
shrunk from disturbing his relations with those who 
were about him ; that he had no desire to come into 
collision with his associates in life; that he would 
cheerfully haye made any sacrifices he could, to 
ayoid doing so; all we know of his character as- 
sures us. He was. beyond all question, eminently a 
man of peace. Xot as a mere matter of expediency; 
not as merely most agreeable to his own personal 
feelings; but as a matter of high religious principle, 
he desired to be on terms of amity and good-will 
with all his fellow-creatures. That he had become 
the object of ill-will to some of them, he had reason 
to know; and yet he was not the more disposed, on 
that account, to do anything that would make things 
worse. Though perfectly conscious that he had not 
deserved their enmity, he felt no temptation to re- 
turn evil for evil. He had nothing to sav against 
them, though they had said and done so much against 
him. 

Doubtless he looked upon them with the pity and 
compassion of a godly man. Though they were 
seeking to injure him, and taking the most sinful 
way of doing so, he knew full well, they were inflict- 
ing worse injury upon themselves. Calm, and peace- 
ful, and confident in a sense of God's protection and 
care, he saw in all their efforts against himself, only 
what was certain to make God their enemy. That 
Saviour who, in after ages, would die on the cross 

29* 



338 



SERMONS. 



for his sins, and whose grace had made him the man 
he was, enabled Daniel to claim that spirit, Himself 
so touchingly expressed, when praying for His mur- 
derers; probably as they were in the very act of 
nailing Him to the cross, He said, " Father, forgive 
them, for they know not what they do." It must 
have been painful to such a man as Daniel to find 
himself the object of dislike and ill-will, even on 
the part of those, whom he had no special reason for 
respecting, and to whom he was under no obligations. 

But he would have felt no inclination to break the 
king's decree, because it had originated in their en- 
vious and malicious feelings. He would rather, if it 
had been possible, have kept peace even with them; 
and obeyed, could he have done so with a clear con- 
science. And it was a severer trial to him, that his 
disobedience would alienate and incense his greatest 
earthly benefactor and friend. The alternative was 
distinctly presented to him, of breaking with God or 
with his king. To seem to show himself ungrateful; 
to be unbending in his determination in a point on 
which his sovereign had set his heart; to lay himself 
open to the suspicion that good as he generally 
seemed to be, he could be self-willed and obstinate 
when he chose; could show an unchangeable unwill- 
ingness that such a friend should be gratified, should 
have his own way; all this, no doubt, made the exer- 
cise of courage absolutely necessary. He could not 
have maintained his ground without it, even if there 
had been no such penalty before his eyes, as being- 
cast into the lions' den; he would have imperatively 
required a godly courage to persevere in what he 



FIRMNESS IN DUTY. 



339 



knew was his duty ; to go on in a cause which he 
knew must breed disturbance ; must exasperate the 
malice of enemies, and wound the feelings, and 
alienate the confidence of a friend. And yet no 
consideration on earth could move Daniel. He must 
obey God. He must keep a conscience void of of- 
fence towards him. Friends might be angry with 
him for what he did, and think he did not show 
enough respect and regard for their wishes and feel- 
ings. He might be altogether misunderstood and 
misrepresented. What he knew was principle, might 
be called caprice; and fidelity to duty, might be 
called obstinacy. He was not insensible to all this. 
But he was more sensible that the path of duty was 
unmistakably plain ; and, without a moment's hes- 
itation for fear of possible or probable consequences, 
must be pursued. And it was : his habits of devo- 
tion remained unchanged. Just as he had been ac- 
customed to do, he went into his chamber and 
"kneeled upon his knees, three times a day, and 
prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he did 
aforetime." He had the courage to do right; not, 
of course, without any feeling of the many painful 
consequences which would attend it. He was a man 
of real sensibility. But he believed in his God; and 
whatever he knew was right in the sight of God, 
though it made his heart bleed, he would do. He 
would "keep innocency and take heed unto the 
thing that was right, for that shall bring a man peace 
at the last." 

Would friends keep you away from the house of 
God, and so make you break your appointment with 



340 



SERMONS. 



your Maker? would they ask you to uphold them in 
what you know to be wrong ? to participate in their 
evil feelings? to neglect duties, lest they censure and 
upbraid ? to be guided by their judgments and wishes 
which you know to be wrong, rather than by your 
own convictions of right and duty? Remember 
Daniel and be courageous ; " add to your faith vir- 
tue," the holy courage which will enable you to say 
the thing which is right, and to do the thing which 
is right. 

You must, if you are to exert any influence in this 
sinful world as Christians. Daniel taught a nation 
to look up to God ; and the humblest Christian, by a 
courageous fidelity to duty; by manfully doing right 
when he must suffer for it, and so walk, as it were, 
in a path by himself, may let the light of a good ex- 
ample " so shine before men that they may see his 
good works and glorify his Father who is in heaven. " 
Because Daniel was so faithful to his duty when he 
had a chamber of his own, to which, in peace and 
quiet and safety, he could retire for prayer, he found 
the comfort and benefit of prayer when his chamber 
was a gloomy den, and his companions, ferocious 
beasts. In the time of his trouble he could call upon 
the Lord, for in his prosperity he had not forgotten 
to do so. 

How almost certain is it, that the time will come, 
in the case of each one of you, when you will feel 
that your only hope is in calling upon the Lord; 
when, as in Daniel's case, you shall feel, there is every 
•human probability your end is near, and that great 
change is coming which will fix you in your eternal 



FIRMNESS IN DUTY. 



341 



state. Would you then feel that if you call upon 
Jesus, you will be calling upon a Saviour you have 
all along neglected? Would you then feel that you 
are turning to God only because, if you any longer 
delay to do so, you must be lost forever? Would 
you really begin to pray when the time for prayer is 
almost gone ? let your chambers, like Daniel's, 
begin to witness your earnest calling upon God for 
mercy and peace, that, like Daniel, you may truly 
serve Him while you live, and find Him a very pres- 
ent help when you shall come to die ! 



SERMON XXYI. 



CHRISTIAN COMMUNION. 

Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another; and the 
Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was 
■written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought 
upon His name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, 
in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as 
a man spareth his own son that servethhim. — Malachi, iii. 16, 17. 

In reading the Bible, Christian people should bear 
this thought constantly in mind; that whenever they 
meet with instruction adapted to their circumstances, 
whenever they find a promise applicable to their 
cases, that instruction, that promise, is for them. It 
may have been originally for the benefit of individ- 
uals who have been dead for centuries, that what we 
find there was written; and the particular prophet, 
apostle, or evangelist, may not at the time have sup- 
posed that what he was addressing to Jews, would have 
any further use, than in the particular case for which 
he was providing; perhaps I should rather say, was 
not aware how extensively God was about to use his 
words, as a medium of conveying religious knowl- 
edge and spiritual consolation to the sons and 
daughters of fallen Adam. But a merciful Creator 
overruled their minds in what they composed, and 
caused " all Holy Scripture to be written for our 
(342) 



CHRISTIAN COMMUNION. 



343 



learning, that by patience and comfort of the same, 
we might have hope;" while the special necessities 
which were had in view by the several writers were 
as aptly served, as if their words had been intended 
for them alone. 

More than four hundred years before our Saviour 
was born into the world, the prophet Malachi ad- 
dressed himself to the Jewish people of his day, in 
the beautiful and affecting words which have been 
read in the text. Even a hasty perusal of the short 
book in which these words occur and which bears 
his name, will satisfy anyone, that among both priests 
and people great wickedness prevailed. The few 
verses immediately preceding the text show this. 
" Your words have been stout against Me, saith the 
Lord. Yet ye say what have we spoken so much 
against Thee ? Ye have said it is vain to serve God, 
and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinances, 
and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord 
of Hosts ? and now ye call the proud happy, yea 
they that work wickedness are set up, yea they that 
tempt God are even delivered." In such a state of 
things, how exceedingly difficult must it have been 
for those who desired to serve God acceptably, to do 
so. Surrounded by people who said and did such 
things, whose influence was so well calculated to dis- 
courage them, and to make them give up in despair, 
they felt the necessity of some safeguard.. If they 
were to hold on their way, if they were to overcome 
the hindrances before them; it was necessary that 
some special efforts, some plan of securing them- 
selves from the dread contagion of sin should be re- 



344 



SERMONS. 



sorted to. They believed and felt thus, and were 
led to the course described in the text. "Then they 
that feared the Lord spake often one to another." 
Those who were of the same mind, who had the 
same object, who were oppressed with the same anx- 
ieties and fears, took sweet counsel together with 
regard to their mutual interests, their common hopes, 
their joint dangers. 

They had God's sanction in this; they were en- 
couraged to do so by Him who knoweth our frame, 
and who is perfectly aware what a conservative influ- 
ence is exercised by such intercourse; such a mutual 
exchange of thoughts and feelings as the pious Jews 
had recourse to. His prophet, in God's name, gave 
them an animating promise; He from whom no se- 
crets are hid, had observed their endeavors to keep 
alive in their hearts the spark of true piety, to keep 
themselves unspotted from the world; when they 
spake one to another that they might not sin against 
Him, that they might encourage and strengthen 
each other in steadfast obedience, an Eye was fixed 
upon them, an Ear was open unto their words, and 
that Eye was beaming with holy approbation, that 
Ear was catching the faintest of their words. It 
was the Eye that never sleeps; it was the Ear that 
hears the sweet music of the first and feeblest desire 
of the broken and contrite heart; it was a gra- 
cious and compassionate Father yearning over His 
dear children, and storing up against the day when 
they should meet Him in judgment, the precious 
history of their piety towards Himself. "Then they 
that feared the Lord spake often one to another; and 



CHRISTIAN COMMUNION. 345 

the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of 
remembrance was written before Him, for them that 
feared the Lord and thought npon His name." God 
did not leave them comfortless, He was on their 
side ; what they were doing was for His glory, as 
well as for their own safety and benefit. He encour- 
aged them in their course, He set the seal of His 
approbation to the means they were using; by giv- 
ing them a promise unspeakably precious; a prom- 
ise of which they might indeed speak often one to 
another, and find themselves confirmed in all their 
good purposes by doing so. "And they shall be 
Mine saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I 
make up My jewels : and I will spare them as a man 
spareth his own son that serveth him." What an 
incentive to perseverance was this ! what a preserv- 
ative against the contamination of surrounding world- 
liness and ungodliness ! They had only to be often 
thinking and speaking of the day of God's coming 
to judgment ; of His gracious owning of them then 
for His; of His sparing them with parental compas- 
sion, when the poor deluded sinners by whom they 
were now surrounded and tempted, would be shrink- 
ing in horror from the awful wrath of an avenging 
God; they had but to often speak and think of this, 
and, it was no impracticable task for them, whatever 
others might do, to serve the Lord and walk in 
all His commandments and ordinances blameless. 
Doubtless they did so, and now their happy souls are 
reaping the blessed fruits of being steadfast unto the 
end; now they are in the paradise of God, and when 
the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised 

30 



346 



SERMONS. 



to judgment; we and they will witness the fulfilment 
of God's precious promise to them, "and they shall 
be Mine saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I 
make up My jewels; and I will spare them as a man 
spareth his own son that serveth him." 

Now, are our circumstances such, that the instruc- 
tion afforded by the course of these right-hearted 
Jews can be made to benefit us ? And, if we tread 
in their footsteps, do as they did, speak often one to 
another, will the Lord hearken and hear us too ? Will 
there be " a book of remembrance written" before 
Him for us, if we "fear the Lord and think upon His 
name," and shall that promise which we want words 
to speak of as it deserves to be spoken of, shall that 
exceeding great and precious promise be ours ? Dear 
Christian hearers, if God had sent the words which 
we are considering down from heaven to-day, and 
they had never been written for the case of those 
poor beleagured Jews, they could not be more in- 
tended for us than they are now. God meant them 
for His people in all ages; He meant them for all 
who should at any time be endeavoring to make head 
against that tide of influence which, in this wicked 
world, is ever running strong away from heaven, 
and bearing countless unresisting sinners to the lake 
of fire prepared for the devil and his angels. See 
how exactly parallel our case is with those who 
of old "feared the Lord and spake often one to 
another." Does not the conduct of most around us 
say, even if their lips do not, "It is vain to serve 
God, and what profit is it if we keep His ordinances 
and walk mournfully before the Lord ?" Is not this 



CHRISTIAN COMMUNION. 



347 



the virtual language of the behavior of backsliding 
Christians ? and those whom nothing can persuade 
to believe in and obey the Saviour ? Do they not 
act as though they thought religion a gloomy, for- 
bidding, and profitless thing? Further, it was thus 
with the Jews : "And now ye call the proud happy; 
yea, they that work wickedness are set up, yea, they 
that tempt God are even delivered." And is it 
not so now? Are not the proud — those who think 
they have reason to be proud of wealth, standing, 
reputation, talent, called happy? no matter whether 
in God's sight they are the most miserable, blinded, 
wretched creatures in existence? Are not the least 
scrupulous often the most successful ? as though 
principle and piety were rather at variance with in- 
terest; and do we not incessantly witness those who 
are all the while tempting God by their sins, deliv- 
ered from any and all present punishment? and 
amidst such circumstances what is so difficult as to 
maintain a pure conscience; to honor Christ by ho- 
liness of life; to live and long for, and strive to 
obtain an unseen reward ! 

If we had no evil propensities of our own; no 
vicious inclinations; no tendencies to evil; we might 
be safe. But it is not so; we have ourselves sinful 
and corrupt natures; we are but imperfectly alive 
to our dangers ; we are but too strongly inclined by 
nature to wicked habits of heart or life; and per- 
haps in past times, by our own fault, by self-indul- 
gence, by neglecting to pray for God's grace, we have 
made those natural inclinations stronger. "We are 
like open magazines, with sparks flying about them 



348 



SERMONS. 



in all directions ; and if the influences without, once 
enlist the powers of evil within, woe unto us, for we 
are undone ! We shall sin against God, die in our 
sins, and rise to the resurrection of damnation. Oh, 
yes, our case is like the Jews' case; just like it, in all 
essential particulars ; and it will be happy for us, if 
we so imitate their prudence, as to have the precious 
privilege of feeling that the promise that animated 
them belongs to us also. " Then they that feared 
the Lord spake often one to another." This was 
their device to secure themselves against the seduc- 
tions intentional and unintentional, direct and indi- 
rect, of Satan and sinners. 

It is a great help to feel that we are not strug- 
gling against temptation alone; that others have the 
same discouragements, meet with the same perplexi- 
ties with us; to be assured of their sympathy and 
prayers ; to know they have a sincere concern for 
our welfare, and rejoice when we walk worthy of the 
high vocation wherewith we are called. It is in the 
power of Christians, by frequent intercourse among 
themselves, to strengthen their weak hands and con- 
firm their feeble knees; to take off the edge of 
many of the allurements of the world, the flesh, and 
the devil; to inspire each other with confidence; 
to excite each others' hopes; mutually to awaken 
strength, and stronger feeling3 of devotion ; firmer 
intentions and purposes ; livelier anticipations of 
ultimate success in running the race set before them. 
They cannot speak often one to another, freely, un- 
restrainedly, for the express purpose of keeping 
themselves secure from the evil that is in the world, 



CHRISTIAN COMMUNION. 



349 



without finding that they are the more disposed and 
the better able to adorn the doctrine of God their 
Saviour in all things. 

And how peculiarly proper, how natural is it that 
they should do so ! Men of the world who have a 
common object, who are aiming to promote a com- 
mon interest, speak often, and interestedly, and earn- 
estly, one to another. If a few are seeking an end 
in the face of the opposition of the many; if a few 
have set out to obtain what the many would persuade 
them is not worth having; do not those few feel 
themselves drawn towards each other; and are they 
not frequently seeking each others' society, and con- 
ferring about their darling scheme ? How much 
more becoming such a course in Christians ! What 
is the aim of worldly men compared with their aim? 
wmat have the children of this world to talk about 
one to another, compared to the topics which crowd 
upon the minds of Christians? what are the transitory 
interests of this earthly state, beside the momentous 
issues, the everlasting consequences which depend 
upon the Christian's enduring unto the end ? 

Worldly men may be defeated and disappointed in 
all their plans and undertakings, and yet sustain no 
injury that they will feel after death; if even then 
they turn unto the Lord. But if the Christian falls ; 
if his expectations and designs come to nought; if 
he is seduced from his allegiance to the Saviour 
whom he has confessed before men, oh, what results 
ensue ! He destroys his own soul, he consigns him- 
self to everlasting despair; he dishonors the Lord 
whom he must meet in the day of judgment; he 

30* 



350 



SERMONS. 



confirms the wicked around Mm in their wickedness ; 
he discourages Christians, and keeps from becoming 
such, those who were minded to become so ! How 
will such an one abide the day of Christ's coming ? 
How will he stand when the Lord appeareth? "What 
a motive for Christians speaking often one to an- 
other, that they may avoid such deep damnation ! for 
holding together for mutual conference and support, 
that a world which cares not for God, which rejects 
Christ, which virtually denies a judgment and eter- 
nity to come, may not carry them away with it down 
the broad road that leadeth to destruction ! 

Christian hearers, let me enjoin upon you all, to 
imitate the pious Jews. Have nothing to do, if pos- 
sible, with those who are openly immoral. Have as 
little to do as may be, with those who though not 
immoral, care for none of those things about which 
you should be all anxiety. Let your intercourse be 
with fellow-Christians as frequently as you can; 
speak often one to another of your common hopes, 
your common temptations, your common infirmities 
and frailties ; of your Christian privileges, your sol- 
emn obligations, your latter end. Let there be such 
a chain of sympathy created by frequent communion 
with each other, that if one member suffer all the 
members shall suffer with it, or one member be hon- 
ored all the members rejoice with it. Let those who 
are more steadfast,, speak often to encourage those 
who are less so; let those who are strong, thus bear 
the infirmities of the weak. Let no one member of 
our little household of faith, feel that his fellow- 
Christians have no care for his soul; but like a united 



CHRISTIAN COMMUNION. 



351 



band, sons and daughters of a common parent, jour- 
neying onward through countless perils to their 
Father's home; let us speak often one to another; 
with all the gentleness, with all the fervor, with all 
the tender solicitude of heavenly love, that all who 
have ever knelt at this altar to commemorate a 
Saviour's dying love, may be welcomed by that 
Saviour into His heavenly kingdom. This is our 
privilege; this is our Christian duty. 

When in hours of despondency (and such hours 
will come to all), when with a fainting heart you 
shall seek the society of a fellow-Christian to tell 
him of your troubles, to secure his countenance and 
encouragement, to arm yourself with new resolu- 
tion against the sins which do most easily beset you ; 
Jesus the High Priest of your profession, "who can 
be touched with a feeling of your infirmities, and 
was in all points tempted like as you are yet without 
sin," will be present to hear your words; to treasure 
them up; to note the desires and intents of your 
hearts; to gauge and embalm the memory of your 
sincere and earnest endeavor to fortify yourself in the 
ways of obedience to Him. When you are speaking 
one to another of what may tend to secure your 
safety; to make good your purposes ; to save your 
souls alive; He will not lose, He will not forget one 
word. He died that you might live, He loved you 
well enough to be made man, and to be crucified for 
your sins; and as in society our attention is arrested 
by what we feel deep interest in, so nought so surely 
engages the ear of our Divine Lord, nought is more 
carefully recorded than the interchange of thought 



352 



SERMONS. 



and feeling between those who are in earnest, "so to 
pass through things temporal that they may not 
finally lose the things eternal." By their words they 
shall be justified; a Saviour's merits shall cover all 
that was imperfect and sinful in them, shall cleanse 
them from all sin; and God who cannot behold in- 
iquity shall remember them for good. 

Yes ! He shall remember them for good; hear what 
comfortable words assure you that He will do so; 
"and they shall be Mine saith the Lord of Hosts in 
that day when I make up My jewels; and I will 
spare them as a man spareth his own son that serv- 
eth him." What is more precious than jewels ? they 
are as the original words imports, special treasures; 
and as such He designs to regard His faithful 
people ; and when He shall send forth His angels 
and gather together His elect from the four corners 
of the earth; those who fear Him and speak often 
one to another, will all be owned as His. And what 
thoughts of tenderness and affection in His dealings 
towards them then, are suggested by the beautiful 
image of His own choice ; " and I will spare them as 
a man spareth his own son that serveth him." Can 
you conceive of any feelings you would have G-od 
cherish towards you, in that dread day, more full of 
promise to your souls, than such feelings as a parent 
cherishes towards a living and obedient son ? a son 
that serveth him, a son that anticipates his wishes, 
and reveres all his injunctions ? Would not a father 
deal tenderly with such a child, regard his interests, 
consult his happiness, spare him the endurance of 
even an unkind look ? " They that fear the Lord and 



CHRISTIAN COMMUNION. 



353 



speak often one to another," and so confirm them- 
selves through God's grace, nnto the end; may hope 
for this. When the anger of the Lord shall be let 
loose against those whom no warning could startle, 
no promise allure ; who all their lives despised and 
neglected a Saviour's calls; when amidst the terrors 
of judgment, shame and contempt shall be over- 
whelming them ; and the lightning of God's indig- 
nation shall be flashing from the great white Throne ; 
oh! think what will it be then to have God spare us 
"as a man spareth his own son that serveth him;" to 
acknowledge our interest in the blood that atoned 
for sin; to spare us even a frown, even a word of re- 
buke, to say to us "come ye blessed children inherit 
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation 
of the world!" 

"Would you have it otherwise with you in that day, 
dear hearers, that so many of you neither fear God 
nor think upon His name, nor take any care to be 
protected against the soul- destroying influence of the 
world ? You have interests at stake just as precious 
as Christians have; you are more in danger from the 
deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil, than 
they; and you must as certainly be brought into 
judgment for every work and every secret thing. 
When God shall make up His jewels would you be 
outcasts from His favor ? When He shall spare the 
righteous, would you have Him punish you with ever- 
lasting destruction ? Think of these things ; and may 
God help you, in penitence and faith in Christ to 
join the company of those who "speak often one to 
another," that they may live the life, that they may 
die the death of the righteous ! 



SERMON" XXVII. 



THE LINE OF SEPARATION. 

Even to-morrow will the Lord shew who are His and who is holy; 
and will cause him to come near unto Him: even him whom He 
hath chosen will He cause to come near unto Him. — Numbers, 
xvi. 5. 

An unholy ambition, and a wicked spirit of in- 
subordination, had betrayed certain among the chil- 
dren of Israel into a revolt against Moses and Aaron. 
Koran, Dathan, and Abiram, with a multitude of 
others whom they had induced to join their com- 
pany, gathered themselves together against them, 
and said unto them, "Ye take too much upon you, 
seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of 
them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore, 
then, lift } T e up yourselves above the congregation of 
the Lord ?" They envied the spiritual pre-eminence 
with which Moses and Aaron, the servants of the 
Lord, were clothed. And though themselves, sepa- 
rated from the congregation, and honored with the 
functions of the lower ministries in the church, they 
aspired to the priesthood also. Just as in our day, 
the objection is made against those whom God has 
exalted above their fellows, and entrusted with the 
exclusive right of ordination in His church: "Ye 
take too much upon you;" so did these murmurers 
( 354) 



THE LINE OF SEPARATION. 



355 



and complainers, in this very language, object against 
those who were over them in the Lord. Bitter seem 
to have been the feelings of Moses in reference to 
this ungrateful opposition. Never did man less de- 
serve such treatment. When God appeared to him 
in the burning bush, and commissioned him to de- 
mand from Pharaoh the release of the Israelites, his 
self-distrusting answer was, " Who am I that I should 
go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the 
children of Israel out of Egypt?" And now, as 
though his character had undergone an entire change, 
as though intoxicated with the love of power, he 
lorded it over God's heritage; he is charged with 
unwarranted assumptions of authority. "And when 
Moses heard it," says the sacred narrative, "he fell 
upon his face," in profound sorrow for the guilt of 
these men, and in lowly supplication to the Arbiter 
of all differences among His people. "And he spake 
unto Korah and all his company, saying, Even to- 
morrow will the Lord shew who are His and who is 
holy; and will cause him to come near unto Him, 
even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to 
come near unto Him." The morrow came; and so 
greatly was the anger of the Lord kindled against 
these men, and the congregation who had sided with 
them; that but for the intercession of Moses, "shall 
one man sin, and wilt Thou be wroth with all the 
congregation?" He would have consumed them in 
a moment. 

As it was, a terrible judgment punished their con- 
tempt of God's ordinances, and their wilful oppo- 
sition to His commissioned servants. The question 



356 



of the justice of their complaints, and of the pre- 
tensions of Moses, was to be determined by the 
manner of their death. "And Moses said, Hereby 
ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all 
these works, for I have not done them of mine own 
mind. If these men die the common death of all 
men, or if they be visited after the common visita- 
tion of all men, then the Lord hath not sent me. But 
if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open 
her mouth and swallow them up, with all that apper- 
tain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit, 
then ye shall understand that these men have pro- 
voked the Lord.'' The congregation had before 
withdrawn from around these sinners against God 
and their own souls. And they, hardened in their 
guilt or too proud to acknowledge their sorrow and 
sin, " stood in the door of their tents, and their wives 
and their sons and their little children. And it came 
to pass, as Moses had made an end of speaking all 
these words, that the ground clave asunder that was 
under them; and the earth opened her mouth and 
swallowed them up, and* their houses and all the 
men that appertained unto Korah and all their goods. 
They and all that appertained to them, went down 
alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them; 
and they perished from among the congregation." 
So speedily and fearfully was the question at issue 
determined ; so close did the punishment follow 
upon the sin ! 

• But you may be ready to inquire what interest 
have we in the narration ? Has a sin been commit- 
ted amongst us which will successfully challenge 



THE LINE OF SEPARATION. 357 

the divine interference? "Will the Lord, " even to- 
morrow," make some display of His power to pun- 
ish, that we may know the certainty of those things 
which have been affirmed by the Christian ministry? 
Has a special revelation to the mind of him who is 
set to watch for our souls, warranted the assumption 
of prophetic powers? !No! my hearers. God is not 
about to alter His ordinary mode of procedure. He 
is not about to mark out the sinner to human view, 
by the present judgment upon his sins. To-morrow, 
for ought we know, and in all probability, will be as 
all past time, in the unrestrained freedom with which 
men will be allowed to walk in their own ways. But 
God has not left Himself without witness even in 
our times. He has now, as ever, His own appointed 
mode of " discerning between the righteous and the 
wicked ; between those who serve Him and those 
who serve Him not." He now makes men manifest 
to their own consciences and the world around; set- 
ting their characters as the friends or the enemies 
of God, in the open light of day. Though therefore 
we have no power to penetrate one moment into the 
darkness of futurity, yet we affirm, "Even to-mor- 
row," on the next Lord's day, " the Lord will show 
who are His and who is holy; and will cause him to 
come near unto Him, even him whom He hath chosen 
will he cause to come near unto Him." "Even to- 
morrow," on the next Lord's day, will He run a line 
of separation between the world lying in wicked- 
ness and His own people; even then will He cause 
His chosen ones to " enter into His gates with 
thanksgiving and into His courts with praise." Such 

31 



358 



SERMONS. 



is the character of that Holy Supper, which, on the 
next Lord's day, "I purpose, through God's assist- 
ance, to administer to all such as shall be religiously 
and devoutly disposed." It will show as God's in- 
strument "who are His and who is holy;" and it will 
cause every penitent and believing soul to draw nigh 
unto God. 

The Holy Supper may be regarded, in the first 
place, as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of 
the heart. It " brings to light the hidden things of 
darkness" in the feelings and motives of men, and 
determines the question, under the eye of an observ- 
ing world, " who are God's and who is holy." The 
command is issued, "Do this in remembrance of me." 
Coming from the lips of a Divine Saviour, on the 
eve of suffering the agonies of the cross for human 
sins, it has all the affecting sadness of a dying re- 
quest. Its design, to keep alive the memory of His 
precious death and sacrifice until His coming again, 
involves the necessity in all who would rightly ob- 
serve it of departing from iniquity. Where there 
are no such superstitious views of its efficacy, as 
suppose that it acts like a charm, in entire inde- 
pendence of the state of the heart of the recipient; 
where there are no worldly inducements to encour- 
age the unworthy eating and drinking at the sacred 
table, as happily is the case among ourselves; the 
manner in which men act with regard to the sacred 
injunction, virtually determines the relation they 
sustain towards God, and the real state of their char- 
acters. The gracious invitation appeals, not only to a 
sense of duty, which perhaps exists in most men's 



THE LINE OF SEPARATION. 



359 



minds, though they habitually do violence to it, but 
to a class of feelings and desires which exist only in 
that heart which the grace of God has touched. 
Gratitude for God's inestimable love in the redemp- 
tion of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; to Christ 
for His willing obedience unto death, for us men and 
for our salvation ; anxiety to express these emotions 
by outward acts of obedience; to obtain remission 
of our sins, and to be made partakers of the king- 
dom of heaven; these things are found only where 
there is a new heart and a right spirit. Obedience 
determines the question of relationship who are 
God's. "Ye are my friends," says the Saviour, " if 
ye do whatsoever I command you." " For whosoever 
shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, 
the same is my brother and sister and mother." And 
though the question of relationship carries with it 
the question of character, since necessarily they who 
are God's must be holy; still obedience determines 
it distinctively, according to the Master's words: 
"He that hath My commandments and keepeth 
them, he it is that loveth Me," and, as the beloved 
disciple tells us, " every one that loveth is born of 
God and knoweth God." 

The decision indeed is not infallible; that decision 
we mean, which rests upon the mere outward act of 
receiving the Holy Supper. Men may be deceived, 
and deceive themselves. They may come lightly 
and unadvisedly; they may come under the excite- 
ment of feelings which will die away as speedily as 
they were aroused; they may come in ignorance of 
the true character, the intended effects of the service 



360 



SERMONS. 



they are performing. But when the way of approach 
to the Holy Table is guarded with a vigilance, which 
while it does not by excessive strictness or over se- 
verity encourage hypocrisy, or by too great laxity fos- 
ter self-deception and unworthy pretensions; where 
the aspirants to this holy privilege are enlightened 
as to its nature; set upon self-examination; fore- 
warned of the strictness of its requirements, and of 
the guilt and danger of abusing it ; where in a word 
they are required deliberately to count the cost ; it 
is a fair presumption that those who take the Holy 
Sacrament "are God's;" that "they are holy;" that 
they are His chosen ones, filled in heart and life with 
"the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus 
Christ to the praise and glory of God." And on the 
other hand, with at least an equal degree of fairness, 
may we suppose, that they who wilfully abstain from 
the Lord's Table and "separate from their brethren 
who come to feed upon the banquet of that most 
heavenly food," are God's, only by a nominal rela- 
tionship, if at all; that they are not holy. "He that 
committeth sin is of the devil." And what is sin 
but the transgression of the law? and where more 
plainly is a transgression of the law, than where 
obedience is refused to so plain a command as " Do 
this in remembrance of Me?" 

We know with what fertility the minds of men 
bring forth excuses for this neglect. "We know by 
what varied and skilful sophistry they attempt to 
make a plain violation of the Saviour's command, 
something different from an act of disobedience. 
We know how, by the blinding influence of an evil 
heart of unbelief, they depart with untroubled con- 



THE LINE OF SEPARATION. 361 

science from the ways of the living God. They are, 
consciously, by their mode of life and their state of 
heart, unworthy to be partakers at the Lord's Table. 
And instead of seeing in the Saviour's command, 
by necessary implication, an injunction, if they are 
grievous sinners to repent and amend, they convert 
their unworthiness into an excuse for their neglect. 
They pretend to dread the consequences of partak- 
ing unworthily, and make these fears their apology 
for disobedience. But they close their eyes to the 
equally certain fearful threatenings, against those 
who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
They excuse themselves by pleading the feelings of 
uneasiness, which as communicants they would ex- 
perience from the wrong tempers, and feelings, and 
actions, into which their stations and employments 
betray them : but it costs them no uneasiness to re- 
flect that they are unwilling to obey their Saviour's 
command, at the expense of the watchfulness and 
prayer necessary to guard against their peculiar 
temptations; or if they profess a willingness, but 
plead an inability, it is no grief to them to deny their 
Lord's assurance, "My grace is sufficient for thee," 
" My strength shall be made perfect in thy weak- 
ness." And in an extreme case, when driven from 
every other refuge of lies, they assert an utter incom- 
patibility between their worldly callings and obe- 
dience to Christ's commands, and shelter themselves 
from the imputation of guilt, by the necessity which 
is laid upon them, by the dispensation of Providence 
as they may term their assignment to their respect- 
ive callings, of providing for their own wants and 

31* 



362 



SERMONS. 



those of their households. They forget the imputa- 
tion which they thus cast upon the wisdom, and good- 
ness, and justice of God, of giving a command which 
His own providential arrangements oblige them in 
conscience to neglect. Or if they still insist upon 
such a mode of justification, they make the pages of 
God's providence, which possibly they may misin- 
terpret, higher authority than the clearest command 
of His written word. And if thus one requirement 
is allowed to be made of none effect, the same mode 
of procedure may be applied to all others, and we 
are left in complete ignorance of our Saviour's mean- 
ing when He says, " So likewise whosoever he be of 
you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be 
My disciple." No! my hearers, so long as the com- 
mand of Christ stands, without limitation and with- 
out exception ; so long as, by the necessity of Christ's 
atonement to secure the sinner's pardon and accept- 
ance with God, all who would be saved are equally 
interested in remembering His exceeding great love 
for their souls: so long as the God of providence 
and the God of the Bible are one and the same 
Being, "with whom is no variableness neither 
shadow of turning," so long will it be impossible 
to frame an excuse for the neglect of the Sacrament, 
when it may be had, which will justify that neglect 
in the day of judgment. 

We are speaking now, in reference to those who 
have been educated with the idea that when Christ 
spake of receiving bread and wine, lie meant what 
His language literally implies; and intended that 
the outward ordinance should be continued in the 
Church to the end of time. Whether He will over- 



THE LINE OP SEPARATION. 



363 



look the disuse of His own ordinances, on the ground 
of the force of the prejudices of education; whether 
supposing His command is rightly interpreted by 
the almost universal consent of Christendom, He 
will forgive the error into which some have fallen, 
from too carelessly receiving the opinions of men ; 
from too submissively bowing to human authority ; 
is a question which those must determine for them- 
selves, who are personally concerned. That we are 
as accountable for our opinions as for our actions is 
undeniable ; and that God's revelation of His will is 
sufficiently clear, to convey the truth to every un- 
prejudiced mind, it would be dishonorable to His 
great name to deny. With these principles in mind; 
it behooves those who so widely differ from the great 
body of Christians, to search and examine with the 
teachable spirit of a child, that divine volume by 
which we shall be justified, and by which we shall 
be judged. "Even to-morrow" then, on the next 
Lord's day, by the administration of the Sacrament 
will the Lord "show who are His and who is holy." 

The Holy Supper may be regarded in the second 
place as a means of intimate communion with-Glod. 
Just as the awful judgment which drew the dividing 
line between Moses and Aaron and the rebellious 
princes was a means, though in a different way, of a 
more intimate communion between the former and 
their justifying Judge. "Even to-morrow will the 
Lord shew who are His and who is holy; and will 
cause him to come near to Him : even him whom 
He hath chosen will He cause to come near to Him." 
Viewing a participation of the Lord's Supper simply 
in the light of an act of obedience, it brings us nigh 



364 



SERMONS. 



unto God. It places us in that position, which makes 
us the objects of His approval and favor. Its effect 
is the opposite of that produced in the case of the 
Jews by their sins and iniquities, which as the 
prophet told them, separated between them and their 
God. Again if we consider communicants as guests 
at God's table; as so peculiarly the objects of His 
regard that He calls them from the world, to the rich 
feast which His bounty has prepared, it gives us a 
very proper idea of the Holy Sacrament as a means 
of communion with Him. As we are made nigh by 
the blood of Christ, so are we by that Sacrament in 
which we are " assured of God's favor and goodness 
towards us, and of our being very members incorpo- 
rate of the mystical body of Christ, which is the 
blessed company of all faithful people, and of being 
also heirs through hope of His everlasting king- 
dom." Christ, who is as certainly present in His 
Sacrament, as being God He is everywhere, and 
more nearly there, else would the promise of drawing 
nigh to those who draw nigh to Him be of none 
effect: — Christ causes us to come near unto Him, by 
Himself coming near unto us; by making us to feed 
upon Him spiritually by faith ; by imparting to our 
souls such nourishment as they need, as truly as He 
feeds our bodies by the bread and wine which He 
has commanded to be received. 

"Nor," says an English divine, " need we doubt, 
whilst we receive the sacred symbols with our mouths, 
but that all the benefits of our Saviour's interces- 
sion are therewith conveyed, provided the inward act 
of lively faith do but accompany the outward act of 
eating; provided while we eat and drink, our minds 



THE LINE OF SEPARATION. 



365 



be kept intent upon the thing signified, the spiritual 
design or meaning, and made to apprehend those 
benefits of Christ's death which are absent and in- 
visible to sense." "The cup of blessing which we 
bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? 
the bread which we break, is it not the communion 
of the body of Christ?" Can any one who receives 
the outward and visible signs of the inward and 
spiritual grace, can any one who eats the bread and 
drinks the wine with a true penitent heart and lively 
faith, fail of receiving the thing signified? Is he not 
using the appointed means for partaking of the ben- 
efits of Christ's body which was broken, and Christ's 
blood which was shed for us, even the forgiveness of 
our sins, and all other fruits of His passion ? 

" Even him whom He hath chosen will the Lord 
cause to come near unto Him." " To this man will 
I look," says God by the prophet Isaiah ; " to this 
man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a 
contrite spirit, and that trembleth at My word." 
Says the Psalmist, "The Lord is nigh unto them 
that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of 
a contrite spirit; none of them that trust in Him 
shall be desolate." "Hearken, my beloved brethren," 
says St. James, " hath not God chosen the poor of 
this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom 
which He hath promised to them that love Him ?" 
" The poor of this world," not those only who are 
poor in earthly treasures, but those also to whom 
apply those gracious words of the Saviour Himself: 
" Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the king- 
dom of heaven." Ye who have obeyed the godly 
motions of the Divine Spirit; ye who have acknowl- 



366 



SERMONS. 



edged and bewailed your manifold sins and wicked- 
nesses ; ye who have believed in the Lord crucified for 
your sins; and in union with His church, and in de- 
pendence upon His grace, are " working out your 
own salvation with fear and trembling;" ye are 
proper subjects of St. Paul's exulting language: 
"But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for 
you brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath 
from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through 
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: 
whereunto he called you by our gospel to the ob- 
taining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." You 
are chosen to that state of salvation in which, by the 
diligent improvement of the means of grace, you 
may rejoice in hope of the glory of God, and secure 
" an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." 

Rejoice and be glad at your exceeding great 
and precious privileges ; but let your exultation be 
tempered by a godly fear. Remember the Lord's 
question in answer to Peter's profession of faith, in 
the name of all the Apostles, "Have I not chosen 
you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" We may 
be chosen to the enjoyment of outward privileges; 
but if we abuse them and dishonor our high calling, 
vain, alas ! will be our plea at the day of judgment : 
"We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and 
Thou hast taught in our streets." For He, the 
righteous Judge, shall say, " I tell you I know you 
not whence you are. Depart from Me all ye workers 
of iniquity." "Not every one that saith unto Me, 
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, 
but he that doeth the will of My Father who is in 



THE LINE OF SEPARATION. 



367 



heaven." "Let a man examine himself" then, and 
so much the more as we see the day approaching, 
when the Lord "will canse him to come near unto 
Him, even him whom He hath chosen." "Let a 
man examine himself, and so let him eat of that 
bread and drink of that cup." Let him seek to 
" come holy and clean to such a heavenly feast;" that 
"whatsoever hath been decayed by the fraud and 
malice of the devil, or by his own carnal will and 
frailness, may be renewed in him." That by the 
blessing of Almighty God on the devout use of this 
appointed means of grace, they may show how true 
the Lord their strength is, by His fulfilment of that 
sure promise, which should " strengthen such as do 
stand, and comfort and help the weak-hearted, and 
raise up those who," from whatever cause, have stum- 
bled and fallen in running the race set before them: 
"Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the 
young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon 
the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall 
mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and 
not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." 

The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Even on 
the next Lord's day will the Lord " shew who are 
His and who is holy." "He will discern between 
the righteous and the wicked, between those who 
serve Him and those who serve Him not." He will 
make manifest to the world, and to their own hearts, 
those who have resisted the calls of His gospel; who 
have trampled under foot the Son of God and done 
despite unto the Spirit of grace; who rejecting and 
despising His earthly ministers, have rejected and 
despised Him. He will make^manifest those who 



368 



SERMONS. 



refusing the outward and visible signs of a Saviour's 
dying love, cut themselves off from that pardon and 
salvation which He hath purchased. He will make 
manifest who so "love the world that the love of the 
Father is not in them." 

And oh ! what tender relationships will the divid- 
ing line of separation sever ! How will it part those 
whom God has joined together ! How will it dis- 
unite those who form the same household! We shall 
see the wife leaving the companionship of her hus- 
band; the Lord her God calls, and though he, who is 
as dear to her as her own life, refuses, she dares not, 
her heart will not allow her to disobey her Redeem- 
er's dying injunction. We shall see the child turn- 
ing from the parent who should have led her to God's 
Table, and going in the unsupported feebleness of 
youth, unsupported by that human sympathy and 
fellowship which surely her own home should have 
furnished. We shall see her going to the fountain 
of divine strength and consolation. And think you, 
that when they turn away and leave you dying in 
your sins, no pang is inflicted on their hearts? Think 
you that the partner can separate from her compan- 
ion ; the parent from her children; and not mourn in 
bitterness of spirit, and be horribly afraid for the 
issue in their cases? And will you by continued im- 
penitence and unbelief, by separating from those 
who come to feed on the banquet of this most heav- 
enly food, will you thus disquiet their hearts within 
them ? and though if blessed with your companion- 
ship in serving God, they might go on their way re- 
joicing, must they be let and hindered in "running 
the race that is set before them " by your withdraw- 



THE LINE OF SEPARATION. 



369 



ing from God's service? Is there no force in the 
united claims of a Divine Redeemer and the tender- 
est human relationships, able to win you to the obe- 
dience of Christ? Is there no power in those sol- 
emn words of the Lord Jesus, addressed to those 
who distress and hinder, and are a cause of offence 
to His little ones, His true disciples, "But whoso 
shall offend," whether voluntarily or by the neces- 
sary result of the course he pursues, matters not, 
"whoso shall offend one of these little ones which 
believe in Me, it were better for him that a mill- 
stone were hanged about his neck and that he were 
drowned in the depths of the sea." 

Oh brethren ! this severance of those, who by 
union in the ways of piety here, might be united in 
the courts of praise hereafter; this severance so em- 
phatically pointing to that hour, not far from any of 
us, when it may be rendered eternal, can it fail to 
call up before your minds, the transactions of that 
awful day when it may be, you who now abstain 
from the Lord's Table and those who draw near with 
faith, shall be the same to whom respectively apply 
those solemn words of our Saviour Christ, "And 
these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but 
the righteous into life eternal?" "Even to-morrow 
on the next Lord's day will the Lord shew who are 
His and who is holy; and will cause him to come 
near unto Him : even him whom He hath chosen will 
He cause to come near unto Him." Let the line of 
separation find you on that side on which you will' 
wish to be, in the solemn hour of death and in the 
day of judgment! 

32 



SERMON XXVIII. 



THE EXAMPLE OF DORCAS. 

Then Peter arose and went with them. When he was come, they 
brought him into the upper chamber : and all the widows stood 
by him weeping, and showing the coats and garments which Dor- 
cas made while she was with them. — Acts, ix. 39. 

The chamber of death — with what interest, with 
how much solemnity is it invested, under any cir- 
cumstances, to every thoughtful mind ! We pass its 
threshold; we stand by the motionless, sheeted form ; 
we gaze by the dim light upon the features which 
we were accustomed to behold instinct with intelli- 
gence and feeling, and a crowd of emotions swell 
our breasts, and a current of thought flows through 
our minds, bespeaking by its profitableness our assent 
to the inspired declaration, "It is better to go to the 
house of mourning than to the house of feasting !" 
Such a scene we have opened to our view, in the 
passage of God's Holy Word which has been read 
as the text. It carries us into the presence of the 
dead. It places us by the lifeless form of one whose 
beauty, for the name she bore is thought to indicate 
that in life she was possessed of that coveted but dan- 
gerous quality; whose beauty is withering beneath 
the touch of the last enemy. The rosy tint of life 
(310) 



THE EXAMPLE OF DORCAS. 



371 



and health is gone. The marble paleness of the 
countenance; the fixedness of the features; the rigid- 
ity of every line; the unchanging expression of the 
whole, tell but too plainly that the hour of death 
has passed. 

How true to nature is the scene which the few 
simple words of the sacred narrative place before us! 
The coming of a Christian Apostle has afforded an 
opportunity to those who knew and loved the de- 
ceased to give vent to their affectionate feelings. It 
is a comfort and relief to them to have a sympathiz- 
ing friend at hand, into whose willing ear they may 
pour the full tide of sorrowfully pleasant memories; 
to whom they may exhibit the various tokens of that 
worth and excellence, whose loss they cannot but 
most deeply feel. " Then Peter arose and went with 
them. When he was come, they brought him into 
the upper chamber; and all the widows stood by him 
weeping, and showing the coats and garments which 
Dorcas made while she was with them." Now this 
may seem but a trifling incident; and in itself it is 
so ; and the fact that it is so, is no disparagement of 
that Holy Book which has recorded it. For it is the 
design of that blessed volume, to adapt itself to the 
necessities of creatures, whose histories for the most 
part, are made up of incidents, trifling in themselves; 
and which come to be important, only when viewed 
in relation to the sources whence they spring, and 
the ends toward which they tend. There may be 
that associated with the most insignificant fact which 
shall invest that fact with high interest, valuable in- 
struction, and real importance. And such will be 



372 



SERMONS. 



found to be the case with that single particular which 
we design to make the subject of our present reflec- 
tions: the exhibition to the Apostle, by the weeping 
friends of the deceased Dorcas, of the handiwork of 
her active and useful life. They showed the coats 
and the garments which she had made while she was 
with them. 

The question at once suggests itself, in what aspect 
did they design to present their departed sister to 
the Apostle, by thus setting before him her works ? 
We may readily conceive a case, in which a Chris- 
tian minister or a Christian friend would be moved 
to tears, to the experience of bitter grief, by behold- 
ing just such tokens as were shown to St. Peter. He 
might stand by the mortal remains of one cut down 
in the bloom and loveliness of early womanhood, 
and weeping friends might produce in profusion the 
garments and attire which were the fruits of her own 
taste, and her own skill, and her own industry. And 
yet they might but serve to excite emotions of deep 
distress. They might, while they told of her taste, 
and skill, and industry, tell also of a heart set upon 
frivolity and gaiety. They might but awaken the 
painful remembrance that she was a lover of pleasure 
more than a lover of God; that while she spent much 
time, and care, and thought, in adorning her perish- 
able body: she forgot to invest her soul with those 
heavenly virtues which in God's sight are above all 
price. The wardrobe of the dead maybe only a wit- 
ness against its owner. It may say with mournful 
emphasis, how God and Christ were forgotten ; how 
the praise of men reigned supreme over the praise 



THE EXAMPLE OF DORCAS. 



373 



of God; how the effort was to live for this world, 
and to find personal enjoyment here, even at the 
fearful cost of losing the soul. The great business 
of this life, is to take heed that in the next we may 
be numbered with those, "who have washed their 
robes and made them white in the blood of the 
Lamb." But the garments and the coats that have 
been made while she was with us, may indicate that 
a heart not right in God's sight utterly neglected 
that momentous work. Of course, it is only so far 
as these things may be indeed indications of such 
earthly and sinful manifestations and practices that 
their significance is mournful. Even our Saviour 
left apparel of such worth, that His executioners 
parted His garments among them, and upon His 
vesture did cast lots. But while it told of a measure 
of attention to personal appearance, which may be 
perfectly consistent in the most devoted of His dis- 
ciples; it sanctioned no such interest in such things 
as could elevate them into matters of prominence; 
and allow them to steal away the heart from a su- 
preme regard to the adorning of the soul. Yet oft- 
times they do so; and when such has been the case, 
the attire which awakens the remembrance, that she 
lived in pleasure and was dead while she lived, could 
be produced only to the distress of a mind filled 
with the thought, as it gazed upon the dead, of that 
day when according to the deeds done in the body, 
shall be assigned the eternal portion of the soul. 

So too, other things beside the wardrobe of the 
dead, might be exhibited in token of the character 
of the life, without awakening any but sorrowful 

32* 



374 



sermons; 



emotions in the Christian heart. The productive 
farm; the valuable estate; houses, and lands, and 
stocks, and goods, may be left in abundance, to eulo- 
gize the departed; to exalt our ideas of his capacity 
for business, of his foresight, and prudence, and in- 
dustry, and perseverance; how by bold adventure, or 
by well-timed speculation, or the slower process of 
gradual enrichment, he won his way to opulence. 
Or in proof of the brightness of his intellect: the 
quickness of his perceptions; the sprightliness of his 
imagination ; his wise or witty sayings may be quoted, 
even when years have rolled over his grass-grown 
grave. And yet, painful evidence may thus be fur- 
nished of perverted powers of life, wasted so far as 
the attainment of treasures in heaven is concerned ; 
of a guilty preference for, and satisfaction with, a 
portion in this world. What the dead have left 
behind, may but present them under the aspect of 
creatures who totally forget "it is appointed unto 
men once to die, and after that the judgment;" it 
may present them under the aspect of those, whose 
activity, and energy, and success, did but divert their 
attention from the things that belong to their ever- 
lasting peace. Their words and works, though they 
may praise them in the sight of men, may but con- 
demn them in the sight of God. 

"When the weeping friends of the deceased Dorcas 
showed the Apostle the garments and the coats which 
she had made while she was with them, it was not 
to give him proof of an ingenuity and industry, 
which often the veriest worldling may, and does 
exhibit for purposes, of pride, vanity, and self-indul- 



THE EXAMPLE OF DORCAS. 



375 



gence ; it was not to awaken discussion of what must 
have been her beauty and grace and loveliness, when 
arrayed in fine apparel ; how symmetrical must have 
been her form ; how captivating her address ! It 
was not to give him ideas of such mere external 
qualities, which death had forever withered and 
driven away. He was a minister of Christ ; and 
while he had a heart that could sympathize with 
theirs in every innocent memory associated with the 
dead, he could only have cried aloud in anguish at 
any proof that she who lay before him, had been of 
such a spirit that she had wasted life in sinfulness, 
and lost her own soul. The weeping circle had 
other views in displaying to St. Peter those things 
which her fingers had made. They desired to set 
before him what in her case had been "the hidden 
man of the heart ;" what manner of spirit she had 
been of. They wished to show him that she had 
been distinguished by qualities, the memory of which 
could soothe the anguish of bereavement; qualities, 
the tokens of which it was fitting to produce to a 
Christian Apostle, and in the very death chamber 
itself. Those garments and coats had become in a 
sense sacred. They were memorials of a piety, of 
a benevolence and eagerness to do good, which was 
actually the more delightful to recall, because the 
stroke of death had taken away the revered friend. 
They had not been wrought for herself. They had 
not been designed to minister to her own comfort, 
convenience, or attractiveness. They were for others ; 
for Christ's poor; to allay the evils of the destitute; 
to make the sorrowful heart rejoice. They were the 



376 



SERMONS. 



exponents of a spirit "ready to give and glad to dis- 
tribute;" which had not been contented with say- 
ing, "Be ye warned and be ye filled," but had put 
forth exertions, and exercised self-denial, and spared 
no pains, to meet the demands of piety aud charity. 
Those silent witnesses proclaimed with an eloquence 
beyond the reach of words, that while she was with 
them; while God had spared her life; she had had 
faith, and that she had shown her faith by her works. 
"While others thinking but of themselves had asked, 
"Wherewithal shall we be clothed?" she had dealt 
her bread to the hungry, and covered the naked with 
a garment. The language which the Christian poet 
uses of his deceased mother, "faithful remembrance 
of one so dear," we may imagine might have been 
the expression of all who gazed upon these memo- 
rials of Dorcas' devotion. As they were held up 
to view, how must imagination have pictured her, 
plying with busy fingers her works and labors of 
love; her thoughts occupied with Christ and things 
divine; her countenance beaming with the peace 
and joy inspired by the spirit that was in her! a 
lovely example of one who felt that it was more 
blessed to give than to receive; of one in whom the 
habitual anticipation of that night which had now 
overtaken her, had confirmed the sacred conviction, 
"I must work the works of Him that sent me while 
it is day ; the night cometh in which no man can 
work." 

Even the holy Apostle could look with delight 
upon them ; nay, they must have been invested with 
special interest to such a heart as his. They seemed 



THE EXAMPLE OF DORCAS. 



377 



to bring in advance to his ears those gracious words 
of Jesus which they gave assurance would, in the 
day of the Lord, be addressed to the deceased sis- 
ter; addressed from the judgment-seat ; addressed 
in the presence of an assembled universe ; they 
seemed to bring in advance to his ears those gracious 
words of Jesus, "Come, ye blessed of My Father; 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world. For I was an hungered 
and ye gave Me meat; I was thirsty and ye gave Me 
drink ; I was a stranger and ye took Me in ; naked 
and ye clothed Me ; sick and in prison and ye visited 
Me." " Yerily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have 
done it unto one of the least of these, My brethren, 
ye have done it unto Me." To a thoughtless and 
worldly mind, the garments and coats she made 
while she was with them, might speak only of the 
usefulness and activity of a life that was ended. But 
to a Christian they spoke also of a better life; they 
connected the memory of the piety of earth with 
the joyful anticipation of the exceeding great re- 
ward of the righteous. They kindled the animating 
thought, afterwards so comfortingly and beautifully 
expressed by the Holy Ghost in the sacred Scrip- 
tures, " Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord 
from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they 
may rest from their labors, and their works do fol- 
low them." 

That it was the design of the afflicted friends of 
the dead, to set her before the Apostle as one who 
had served God in her generation ; that we have not 
attributed a mere fanciful meaning to those works of 



378 



SERMONS. 



hers which were shown under circumstances of such 
interest and solemnity; is perfectly evident from 
the account which the sacred narrative itself gives 
of her character. Before it mentions the facts of 
her sickness and death, it says, "this woman was 
full of good works and alms' deeds which she did." 
She was a disciple, it is so stated, a warm-hearted, 
devoted, useful follower of Jesus, and she gave her 
time and her meaas, and expended her energies, in 
such works and labors of love appropriate to her sex, 
as were adapted to honor her Master and only Sa- 
viour, and administer to the temporal comfort and 
eternal interests of her fellow-creatures ; and when 
she was dead her works praised her, and bore this 
testimony, that she pleased God. When the eye 
that had been so quick in discerning the wants of 
others was closed; and the hand that had been so 
diligent for their sakes was motionless in death; her 
bereaved home furnished proof most touching, that 
she had not been merely a lover of her own self; 
that she had lived with a higher aim than mere per- 
sonal indulgence and personal enjoyment, remem- 
bering that she was not her own, but had been 
bought with a price, and was therefore bound to 
"glorify God in her body and in her spirit, which 
were His." The needle had been consecrated; and 
while it wrought in the cause of piety and charity, had, 
without thought or intention on her part, produced 
an eloquent memorial of herself. " While she was 
with them," like her Master, she delighted in doing 
good ; and when it pleased God to take her away, 
her works in one sense followed her, to be her wit- 



THE EXAMPLE OF DOECAS. 



379 



ness on high; and in another, remained to comfort 
afflicted hearts, and encourage them to the exercise 
of Christian virtues. Such a character could not 
disappear from society without being missed. Her 
decease made no vacancy in any circle of frivol- 
ity and thoughtlessness and worldly-mindedness; 
though even the frivolous and thoughtless and 
worldly-minded, startled by the intelligence of her 
departure, no doubt breathed the wish, "Let me 
die the death of the righteous, and let my last end 
be like hers." But many who had enjoyed her be- 
neficence, who had delighted in and profited by her 
friendship, and who had been animated by her good 
example, felt the blow which had stilled her heart 
and paralyzed her arm. There were many to stand 
about her weeping, as she lay in the dark chamber, 
robed for the grave, ready to unite in showing by 
what she had done, what she had been. 

Suppose a case. I speak first to those whose sex 
claims at their hands peculiar deference and atten- 
tion to this instructive record and example. Sup- 
pose a case: instead of being here in God's house, 
living and moving and having a being amongst the 
inhabitants of this transitory world; you are as Dor- 
cas was, laid in an upper chamber, awaiting the day 
of burial. « Afflicted relatives and friends, in tear- 
ful grief surround your lifeless form, and he who 
while you yet were with us, watched for your soul, 
is with them in their sorrow. Are the memorials 
in your bereaved home full of strong consolation to 
survivors in such an hour? Are there tokens there 
that you did not forget your Saviour and your soul ; 



380 



SERMONS, 



that while God waited to be gracious you did attend 
m earnest to the things belonging to your everlast- 
ing peace? May it be said, there is her Bible that 
she dearly loved, and daily read, and took sincere de- 
light in ; there is the chamber which, at stated times, 
heard the outpouring in secret of her heart in prayer 
to God? Can those be found who would say, we oft 
have noted her devout attendance upon the services 
of God's house; her humble, reverential approach 
to the Holy Communion of the body and blood of 
her Master and only Saviour ? Would the remem- 
brance of words and deeds, in intercourse with 
others, contribute to make the impression that your 
immortal spirit, now absent from the body, was pres- 
ent with the Lord ? Might the Christian pastor, 
from ail he saw, and all he heard, and all he could 
himself remember, hope that in the day of Christ's 
appearing you would be found on the right hand 
of His judgment-seat ? Oh, how would it be? God 
give you grace to lend your serious thoughts to 
these inquiries. And if conscience whispers, so 
have I lived that I should leave behind but tokens 
of a life wasted, so far as the great purposes of serv- 
ing God and saving my soul alive were concerned; 
if conscience whispers, so have I lived that those 
who cared for my soul would needs be filled with 
awful apprehensions, touching its eternal destiny — 
say, is it not high time to awake out of sleep? to 
seek the Lord while He may be found ? to take 
thought for eternity, ere that night shall overtake 
you when you cannot work? "I^ow is the accepted 



THE EXAMPLE OF DORCAS. 



381 



time, now is the day of salvation ; to-day if ye will 
hear God's voice, harden not your hearts." 

And if your course were run, young man, what 
would be the signiiicancy of the works you left be- 
hind? the remembrances of you, cherished in your 
own home, and in the community in which your 
character and conduct were well known? Might 
anything be shown; might anything be said, indi- 
cative of piety towards God ? Would there remain 
consoling proof, that while the day of grace held out, 
you had given diligence to make your calling and 
election sure ? He was a pleasant companion ; of 
bright intellect; of buoyant spirits; he promised 
well for making his way in life. Ah ! testimony 
such as this ; if it were all — would sound but sadly, 
when the mind took in the thought of your account- 
ability to God. Testimony such as this, if it were 
all— would bear a fearful aspect, side by side, with 
that remonstrance of God's sacred word, "Rejoice 
oh young man in thy youth ! and let thy heart cheer 
thee in the days of thy youth ; and walk in the way 
of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes; but 
know thou that for all these things, God will bring 
thee into judgment." While he was with us, he 
was not ashamed to confess his Saviour before men ; 
while he was with us he feared, and loved, and 
obeyed the Lord that bought him ; the graces of the 
Christian adorned and ennobled his early manhood; 
and now that he is cut down in the freshness of his 
age, though we sorrow, yet 'tis not as those that have 
no hope. This, this is the testimony that ought to 
embalm your memory! 

33 



382 



SERMONS. 



And if yet you have not started in that race, hest 
worthy of the consecration of your powers; if yet 
you have not even begun to heed the call, "Prepare 
to meet thy God;" oh! listen to the voice which 
bids you to repentance for the past; to faith in Him 
who, as He died to save you, is ready to welcome 
your first response to that obedience to His laws and 
ordinances, which is as reasonable a service as it is 
delightful. "lis Jesus speaks to you, as once to the 
dead son of the widowed mother, "Young man I 
say unto thee, Arise," "My son, give Me thy heart." 
That we were Christ's disciples; true and living 
members of His Church; full of good works and 
alms-deeds, which we did while we were here ; let 
this be the witness to be borne of us. HSot to our 
mere outward qualities; not to our unconsecrated 
wealth or talents, let survivors point; the rich man's 
brother could do all that, while yet his soul was in 
torments; but to such proofs of hearts and lives de- 
voted to a Saviour's service, as may give good hope 
of us, that through that Saviour's merits, our portion 
in the world to come, will be a home in " God's 
presence, where there is fulness of joy, and at God's 
right hand where there are pleasures for evermore." 

Man of many cares ! of energy that is never 
wearied ; of activity that asks not for repose ; upon 
whose time, and thoughts, and capabilities, a host of 
urgent demands are ever pressing with loudest im- 
portunity; what if to all this excitement, and hurry, 
and almost sleepless diligence, the awful quiet of 
death had already succeeded ? What if the works 
to which thy life hath been devoted, were even now 



THE EXAMPLE OP DORCAS. 



383 



forever at an end? Would there be that to show, 
which might encourage the hope that the labors of 
earth were succeeded by the blissful repose of Para- 
dise ? We ask not for the accumulations of a wealth 
that cannot follow thee; for issues and results per- 
taining only to this present world ; but for those to- 
kens, which may kindle the expectation that when 
thou shalt come to stand before the judgment-seat of 
Christ, He will not frown upon thee, as on one who 
all the day stood idle in this probationary existence ; 
idle in reference to the grand duties of religion ; idle 
in reference to a Saviour's claims, and a never-dying 
soul's interests. Where are such tokens? Where 
the evidences that thou didst remember thy duties 
and thy destiny? that thou wert truly in earnest to 
make thy calling and election sure ? Alas ! thy 
death-chamber might be filled with weeping rela- 
tives and sympathizing friends; but they could not 
show aught that would testify a hold on everlasting 
life, a hope, of escape from the bitter pains of ever- 
lasting death. We might see proof enough that 
thou wert wise for time, but ah, would it not be as- 
sociated with proof equally conclusive, that thou 
wert indeed a fool in reference to eternity? that with 
blinded eyes and hardened heart, thou hadst utterly 
neglected the warning of thy Saviour's solemn de- 
mand, "For what is a man profited if he shall gain 
the whole world and lose his own soul?" 



SERMON XXIX, 



THE DOOM OF THE UNPROFITABLE SERVANT. 

And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness. — Mat- 
thew, xxv. 30. 

Whoever remains in doubt as to the manner in 
which he will be treated, when he shall come to 
stand before the judgment-seat' of Christ, has only 
himself to blame. The Bible is full of adjudged 
cases: he needs but to search diligently, and what- 
ever his peculiarity of character or circumstances, 
he will find instances resembling his own. He will 
find that individuals differing from himself in no 
essential particular, or like himself in some main 
feature, were approved or condemned by the lips of 
that Saviour whom God has appointed to judge the 
quick and the dead. Such decisions he will observe 
are based upon principles which change not. And, 
as they are recorded for our learning, that by the 
encouragement or warning they afford, we may be 
guided in our preparation for the day of final reck- 
oning, he will be able to ascertain with certainty, 
whether he may anticipate the smile of welcome or 
the frown of condemnation. 

When a cause is to be tried before a human court, 
how carefully and diligently is this search made by 
him who is entrusted with it ! If the advocate can 
( 384) 



THE DOOM OF THE UNPROFITABLE SERVANT. 385 

only show that in cases perfectly like his own, the 
decisions in repeated instances have been invariably 
favorable to himself, he entertains a well-grounded 
hope of success; while, on the contrary, if the cur- 
rent of judgment has with equal frequency and uni- 
formity been plainly against him, any expectation of 
a favorable issue must spring from his own power 
to make the worse appear the better cause. And 
when we know that in the case of each one of us, a 
trial must take place, involving interests infinitely 
more important than even a cause of life or death; 
when we know that we have within the narrow com- 
pass of a single volume all the reports that are 
necessary to help us to a right judgment in our own 
case ; when we are sure that the business of ascer- 
taining whether we may hope for acquittal and ap- 
proval or not, is left in our own hands; shall we 
dare to neglect the imperative obligation to " search 
the Scriptures?" shall we not give all diligence to 
determine what the Lord Christ will think of us and 
say of us when "He shall come again in His glo- 
rious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead?" 
Be assured that if you discover in yourselves indis- 
position to look into your Bibles for such a purpose, 
this is, and will be your condemnation, " that light is 
come into the world, and you have loved darkness 
rather than light, because your deeds are evil!" 
Rather let us pursue the wiser course of coming 
to the light, even though our deeds should thereby 
be reproved. Let us judge ourselves that we be not 
judged of the Lord. The words of the text furnish 
us with one of those instances which so materially 

33* 



386 



SERMONS. 



assist all who wish to know the truth, in making the 
discovery. With a single dash of the pen of inspi- 
ration, a character perfectly distinct is presented to 
our notice: " The unprofitable servant;" his doom 
is no less plainly set forth: "Cast him into outer 
darkness." 

Now, my dear hearers, if up to this period of your 
lives you have borne this character, you have also 
been liable to this doom ; and if at the day of final 
reckoning it shall appear that in this world you were 
always, in the view of the Almighty, unprofitable 
servants, to outer darkness you will inevitably be 
consigned. Whatever anguish of mind and body is 
shadowed forth by this figure, that for eternity will 
be your portion ; excluded forever from the pres- 
ence of God, you will be doomed, not merely to the 
privation of enjoyment, but to the endurance of 
actual and unmitigated suffering. What a scene of 
misery and torture must that outer darkness be, 
where, as the word of God declares, shall be weep- 
ing and gnashing of teeth! What a conflict of un- 
holy passions! what an accumulation of agonizing 
emotions! what despair! what remorse! what blas- 
phemous rage against God, seem to be indicated by 
these strong expressions ! If there be a degree of 
indefiniteness about them, like the darkness and 
gloom of night, it serves but to add to the terrors of 
what is thus dimly seen. Though, doubtless, could 
an adequate conception of all that is meant by that 
"outer darkness, where shall be weeping and gnash- 
ing of teeth," be conveyed to our minds, "imagina- 
tion's utmost stretch" would appear to have fallen 



THE DOOM OF THE UNPROFITABLE SERVANT. 387 

infinitely short of the terrible reality. We may be 
confident that when God, who created and preserved 
us, and sent His own son to die for, and to save us, 
shall banish a soul from His presence, the punish- 
ment will be awful in the extreme ; whatever it may 
be, it will quench the light of hope, and make its 
miserable victim feel that it would have been better 
for him if he had never been born. And can it be 
that any of you are obnoxious to such a doom? Can 
it be that only the frail thread of life holds some of 
you from the distinction of the unprofitable servant? 
Search and examine whether in any case a resem- 
blance to his character exists. Are you Jike him in 
his character? This is the question which carries 
with it the others. 

Observe — the description of character here pre- 
sented is so general, that it may represent individ- 
uals of every variety of condition and circumstances; 
nothing limits its application to any particular class 
of persons; the rich and the poor; the old and the 
young; the profligate and the moral; male and female; 
however unlike in a multitude of other respects, 
may agree in this one feature; that in God's sight, 
they are all unprofitable servants. Then no one can 
say, this instance cannot resemble mine, because there 
were reasons for expecting in the case of that ser- 
vant, what there is no reason for expecting in my 
case. The truth is, God may justly require more 
from each of us, than the master could have looked 
for from his servant. That servant had received but 
one talent, while even the poorest of us has received 
many. Our time; the influence we may exert by 



388 



SERMONS. 



example: our money; our religious privileges; our 
stations in life, place us very far in advance of him 
who is represented as being held to account for the 
employment of only one means of influence. If then 
an individual to whom so little had been given, and 
from whom consequently so little was expected, was 
counted an unprofitable servant, and punished ac- 
cordingly, because he failed to meet his master's 
wishes; let us take heed to ourselves; the humblest, 
least influential among us, may be still more an un- 
profitable servant, and be condemned to a like pun- 
ishment. 

Let us inquire in what the unprofitableness of this 
servant consisted. He had carefully preserved the 
amount entrusted to him: if he had not, like his fel- 
low-servants, traded with and doubled his money; 
neither had he, like the prodigal son, wasted it in 
riotous living. For reasons which satisfied himself, 
partially so at least, he chose to bury his talent in 
the earth; he would neither abuse it, nor improve it. 
Though he had been commanded to make the most 
of it; to do what he could; he preferred to take 
what he thought safe neutral ground: the extent of 
his ambition was to be able to say, " I have done no 
harm." Xow compare your own cases with this ; 
the highest ground that many of you take is, that 
you do not abuse the talents which God has com- 
mitted to you; you imagine that at heart you can 
say, you do no harm. Indeed, often have we been 
pained and shocked, to discover that the sum total 
of an individual's pretensions to both morality and 
religion, has consisted in this; that he has never in- 



THE DOOM OF THE UNPROFITABLE SERVANT. 389 

jured any one. All his obligations to God ; to his 
fellow-men ; to his own soul, have thus, in his reck- 
oning, been adequately discharged. But let me ask, 
where in the wide universe of God, anything can 
be found which answers the end of its creation by 
simply doing no harm? Is it thus that even the 
beasts that perish attain the purpose of their being ? 
Or, to go even lower in the scale of creation; can it 
be said of any single vegetable or mineral product 
that it merely does no harm? Our knowledge is 
limited in extent, and very imperfect; with the uses 
of many of the things that are seen, we have no ac- 
quaintance; but so far as our information is accurate 
and certain, we find no unprofitable servants in the 
lower orders of God's creatures; in the humblest 
portions of His handiwork. From the glorious sun, 
fit emblem of its Maker, to the last link in the chain 
of being, all is positively useful, productive of some 
actual good in the economy of nature. 

And shall we, endowed with powers which make 
us capable of active and extensive influence for good 
— shall we, whom God has made but "a little lower 
than the angels," be content to be outdone by the 
very worm which crawls beneath our feet ? yea, by 
the very clod which is crushed beneath our tread? 
shall ice talk of doing no harm, when the eloquent 
and ceaseless voice of universal nature is, " Be and 
do good?" Yet alas! such is the language of man's 
corrupt and degenerate heart; such is the language 
with which conscience is sought to be hushed into a 
slumber which only the terrors of judgment shall 
disturb ! Let me bring this fact before you in the 



390 



SERMONS. 



reasonings which your own minds pursue. You ad- 
mit that your time might have been employed to 
better purpose than much of it has been; but then 
you claim that you have not devoted it to purposes 
unequivocally bad. You do not doubt, that if you 
had set a consistent Christian example before those 
around you, some good might have been effected ; 
yet on the other hand, you are quite certain that 
your example has not done the injury which that of 
others has. If you have not given as much of your 
money to the cause of Christ, as your means would 
have allowed ; yet you have not wasted it for utterly 
useless and injurious gratifications. True, you have 
enjoyed religious privileges; but if they have not 
prevailed upon you to become Christians, they have 
yet not been treated with utter neglect and disre- 
spect. Thus in reference to each talent with which 
God has entrusted you, you contend; and for argu- 
ment's sake, we allow that at least you have not 
abused it, that at least, you have not done harm 
with it. 

But what follows from this? Plainly, that you 
stand on no better ground, than that occupied by the 
servant with one talent; at most, you have but his 
unavailing plea to make; like him, in God's account 
you are unprofitable servants. In truth, however, 
you do not occupy even as good ground as he did ; 
you have not even his worthless plea to urge; for in 
the first place, having been entrusted, not with a 
single talent, but with very many; your guilt is pro- 
portionally greater than his; even though it were 
strictly correct to say that you have done no harm. 



THE DOOM OF THE UNPROFITABLE SERVANT. 391 

But it is positively false to say so. For in the second 
place, you must remember that not to improve some 
of the talents which God has committed to you, is 
actually to abuse them. Take for instance, the talent 
of example ; if you have refused to become a Chris- 
tian, have you not set the positively wicked example 
of neglecting the great salvation? Have you not 
taught and encouraged others by your conduct, to 
put off all attention to the things which belong to 
their everlasting peace ? This is not burying a talent 
in the earth, but employing it for an evil purpose ; 
it is being worse than an unprofitable servant; it is 
being an enemy of God, your own, and other people's 
souls ! If then the merely unprofitable servant was 
condemned, surely you, who are absolutely worse 
than he, cannot escape ; if his plea amounting to 
this, "I have done no harm," did not shield him 
from punishment; what must be expected, when you 
cannot say even so much in your defence ? 

Of course, the argument becomes stronger against 
those who have positively abased God's favors. The 
individual who has injured his body and mind, and 
wasted his substance by dissipation in any of its va- 
rious forms and degrees; the man whose profane and 
immoral habits of speech and of action, have tended 
to corrupt all within the circle of his influence; those 
whose time has been wasted in frivolity and gaiety, 
as fatal to their own hopes of becoming serious and 
devout, as injurious to the companions of their 
thoughtlessness; all these, having done much real 
injury to themselves and others, must look for even 
a severer doom than the unprofitable servant. He 



392 



SERMONS. 



indeed had no hope of escape; comparatively inno- 
cent as he thought himself, all his delusive notions 
were scattered forever by the awful sentence, " Cast 
him into outer darkness." They, consigned to a 
doom of like duration, all future punishment being 
eternal, will doubtless experience fiercer sufferings 
than his. 

There is one point in the case of the servant, 
which must not be passed by unnoticed, in com- 
paring yourselves with him, because it made his 
prospects of acquittal fairer than yours. If then, in 
spite of this superiority, he was counted an unprof- 
itable servant, and cast into outer darkness, how 
shall you escape ? He had the talent to give back 
to his master, which had been entrusted to him; but 
will this be your case? Will you be able, at the 
judgment-bar of your Saviour, to restore the time 
you have wasted and misimproved here; to give 
back the many opportunities of being good and do- 
ing good, which a gracious God afforded you ? Will 
it be in your power to say, "Lord, here are all the 
blessings which were conferred on me; here are all 
the means of usefulness I enjoyed, and might have 
improved to the saving of my own soul and the spir- 
itual good of others; take them back; I have kept 
them ; done no harm with them ; and here they are 
just as I received them from Thy hands?" Oh, no ! 
of all the talents entrusted to you, not one will you be 
able to restore. Even that body and soul which God 
has given you, with the solemn injunction, "Glorify 
God in your bodies and in your spirits which are 
His;" even they, the only talents with which you will 



THE DOOM OF THE UNPROFITABLE SERVANT. 393 

stand before your Judge; even they will not be 
yours to give back to God; Satan will claim tbem; 
lie will be able to say, " Their possessor, be to whom 
for a season they were lent, has forfeited them to me; 
he has betrayed his trust ; he lived and died in the 
commission of those sins which he was plainly fore- 
warned would destroy both soul and body in hell." 
Surely the individual who will thus appear before 
his Judge; stripped by his own sins of every talent 
which had been entrusted to him, must be in even a 
worse condition than the servant who could say to 
his Lord, "Lo ! there Thou hast, that is Thine." 

We have run the parallel between your cases and 
that of the unprofitable servant ; and in every par- 
ticular it has plainly appeared that your position is 
even more dangerous than his. He had been en- 
trusted with but one talent, you have been entrusted 
with many; he claimed merely to have done no 
harm, you cannot make good even that pretension; 
he was able to restore what had been committed to 
his care, you will have forfeited everything. Was 
he condemned, and can you hope to escape? Was 
he frowned into " outer darkness, where shall be 
weeping and gnashing of teeth," and can you an- 
ticipate a milder sentence ? Be assured that since 
God has thus placed the stamp of His reprobation 
upon the sin of unprofitableness ; to those who have 
been guilty of worse offences, there remaineth only 
"a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indig- 
nation." "Unprofitable servants," indeed, we should 
continue to be, even if we had done all those things 
which are commanded us. Should we serve God to 

34 



394 



SERMONS. 



the best of our knowledge and abilities, we should 
only be paying a debt which His innumerable bless- 
ings have laid upon us; still we should be without 
merit in His sight. " Can a man be profitable unto 
God as he that is wise may be profitable unto him- 
self?" 

But though it can never be on the ground of any 
advantages to Himself, that the Almighty will count 
and reward you as profitable servants; you may yet, 
and if you would be saved, you must become such, 
and God is willing to regard you in that light, if you 
will only pursue that course which will be profitable 
to yourselves ; if you will only walk in that narrow 
way which leadeth unto life. If with sincere and 
godly sorrow for your past unprofitableness; with a 
lively and steadfast trust in God's mercy through 
Christ, you work out your own salvation with fear 
and trembling; "Well done good and faithful ser- 
vant," will be your reception at the last day. God 
will graciously account as service done to Himself, 
what, in fact, does but promote your own eternal in- 
terests; and give you a sure title to those good things 
which pass man's understanding, which God has 
prepared for those who love Him. He only requires 
that you should " so pass through things temporal 
that you may not finally lose the things eternal;" 
and upon that simple ground, will deal with you, for 
the worthiness of your Redeemer, as though you 
had been exclusively engaged in doing a work, which 
had no other connexion with your own interests, 
than the fact that God had assigned and promised to 
reward it. 



THE DOOM OF THE UNPROFITABLE SERVANT. 895 

Since then, in the case of the unprofitable servant 
at best, you recognize your own; since, consequently 
like him you are exposed to a like doom ; the terrors 
of which we can now see only as through a glass, 
darkly ; though we are sure from the strength of the 
expressions by which they are shadowed forth, that 
they infinitely outstrip all our conceptions of suffer- 
ings; and since God does but require that you should 
believe in His Son Jesus Christ, and in union with 
His Church walk in newness of life, in order to rank 
here, and at the judgment bar with the good and 
faithful servants, will you persist in sustaining a 
character, which links you, as by a chain of adamant, 
to a condition of future and eternal despair ? Will 
you obstinately continue an unprofitable servant 
here, though at the fearful hazard of being, at any 
moment, sealed over by death to that "outer dark- 
ness where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth?'' 
In the secret feelings of each heart the Omniscient 
Eye will read the answer; in the Book of Remem- 
brance that answer will be recorded against that day 
of doom, when "every one of us shall give an ac- 
count of himself to God!" 



SEEMON XXX. 



ST. PAUL AT CORINTH. 

(Last Sunday of the Year.) 

Ye also helping together by prayer for us. — II. Cor. i. 11. 

When the Apostle Paul first entered the populous 
and profligate city of Corinth, we suppose that there 
was not an individual there who felt any interest in 
the great work he had in hand. There is no soli- 
tude, it is often said, like the solitude of a great 
city. Never does a feeling of loneliness take more 
complete possession of one's heart, than as he passes 
through its crowded streets and looks upon none 
but strange faces, and feels that he has not so much 
as even a single acquaintance there, and that no one 
who glances at him, as he walks along, bestows upon 
him a second thought of interest or of sympathy. 
And this is so, even where the individual feels per- 
fectly confident that many of these strange faces 
would light up with both interest and sympathy, 
did they but know who he was, and why he was there. 
A crowd of strangers is a lonely place, even though 
we know that ijie touch of acquaintanceship would 
change that crowd into a host of cordial and ad- 
miring friends. 

But this the Apostle did not know ; nay, he had 
every reason to suppose that so soon as these stranger 
( 396) 



ST. PAUL AT CO ft TNT LI. 



397 



Corinthians came to know who he was and why he 
was there, they would, very many, probably the most 
of them, become bitter and unrelenting enemies. 
Suppose that now a clergyman of the Church should 
go to the chief city of Utah, to preach there the pure 
and purifying Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ; to 
wage relentless and exterminating war upon the 
abominations which are there interwoven with the 
very texture of society, sustained by its public opin- 
ion and incorporated into its religion, if it be right 
to use so sacred a word to describe so monstrous a 
system. His condition and prospects may serve to 
represent what were St. Paul's condition and pros- 
pects when he began in heathen, profligate Corinth 
to open his great message — "the grace of God which 
bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teach- 
ing them that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, 
they should live soberly, righteously, and godly in 
this present world ; looking for that blessed hope 
and the glorious appearing of the great God and 
our Saviour Jesus Christ." Whatever the ultimate 
result might be, it was certain that the first effect of 
such a message would be to arouse a very hurricane 
of violence and opposition; not a war of words 
merely, but of desperate attempts upon the very life 
of the Apostle. The truth is, when Christianity 
was first introduced into this world, if Almighty 
God had not specially protected the agents of its 
introduction, they would all have been destroyed. 
There would have been no more chance for that 
beneficent system to have gained a foothold in the 
world, than there would be a chance now of a man's 

34* 



398 



SERMONS. 



escaping enmity, opposition, and violence, who should 
undertake to preach the Gospel in Utah. "Why! 
can it, should it ever be forgotten, that the Son of 
God Himself would have been slaughtered in His 
very infancy if sinful man could have had bis way ! 
That a blow was aimed at His life, which, though 
He, by God's never-failing providence escaped, did 
yet plunge a whole town of mothers into mourning 
for their babes ! 

Brethren, you live in a better world now, than the 
world was when St. Paul was alive. There was no 
place in it then, where mankind were not in such a 
state of ignorance and prejudice and debasement 
that it was not dangerous to preach the Gospel there. 
To tell men then, of a Saviour and of the commonest 
duties of morality, was as much as a man's life was 
worth. The world is still bad enough ; there are places 
ih it still, where Christ's ministers are martyred for 
their faith. But how much ground has been gained 
where the fullest proclamation of the truth in J esus 
can be safely made; where so much has the prevail- 
ing tone of moral sentiment been elevated, that 
there would be one general burst of indignation if 
any one minister of Christ should be treated, as at 
first all Christ's ministers everywhere were treated. 
The world in its best places is even yet bad enough. 
But the introduction and influences of the Gospel 
have made it, we might almost say, a heaven, com- 
pared to what it was in St. Paul's day. Society, 
without actually being aware of the fact, has been 
put immensely in advance of the position it occu- 
pied, when it demanded the special intervention of 
Almighty God, to introduce safely to His great work 



ST. PAUL AT CORINTH. 



399 



among mankind His only begotten Son, and to keep 
safe from human violence those men, who were first 
commissioned to preach to a world of lost and dying 
sinners pardon and salvation through Jesus Christ. 
Oh ! what a conception of our fallen state does it 
give us, to think what dangers encompassed the first 
introduction of the knowledge and grace of our 
Lord Jesus Christ! that He must needs extend the 
shield of His Almighty protection to His own chosen 
messengers, and keep them alive — literally keep 
them alive — till they had started His kingdom in the 
world on its saving and blissful mission. 

As St. Paul, a lonely man, first trod the streets of 
Corinth, knowing that he had a saying to proclaim 
to the people which was worthy of all men to be 
received, even that Jesus Christ had come into the 
world to save sinners; and yet painfully aware that 
the perishing thousands around him would even 
kindle into fury against both himself and his good 
tidings; a double and deeper sense of loneliness 
must have weighed upon his spirit. He was not 
only in the solitude of a city of strangers, but of a 
city, with the great mass of whose citizens, except as 
he was simply a man, he had hardly a thought or 
feeling, a desire or hope in common. But he went 
to work, for that was his errand there. That was, 
indeed, his errand everywhere. He was, as every 
faithful minister of Christ must be, a working man. 
He went to work laboriously, perseveringly. He 
went into the synagogue where the Jews assembled 
to worship, and there, as they gave him opportunity, 
endeavored to persuade them that Jesus was indeed 
their Messiah; and did persuade some. He min- 



400 



SERMONS. 



gled with the Greeks and Romans, as he found them 
mingled in that great metropolis; and spoke to them 
of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. 
!N"ot a few of them were made to tremble, repent, 
believe, and obey the Gospel. Men who had been, 
as the world would now estimate them, the very 
worst sort of men ; men stained with the grossest 
and most degrading vices, did the preaching of the 
Cross of Christ recover from the snares of the devil, 
in that famous city. 

And then, when for various reasons the Apostle 
became faint hearted, the Lord, by a vision in the 
night, renewed his courage and zeal. For more than 
a year, he remained safely in Corinth, and gathered 
out of its dense and godless population "much peo- 
ple ;" true penitents, real believers in the Lord Jesus 
Christ; those who were just as earnest in getting 
themselves ready for the life to come, as they had 
ever been to serve the world, the flesh, and the devil. 
He ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ, 
till there was a body of people there, whom he could 
address as "the Church of God which is at Corinth." 
And then he went away to do a like work in other 
places; and after an interval wrote back to the 
church at Corinth two letters, the two Epistles to the 
Corinthians. In the beginning of the second of 
those letters, he uses the expression which has been 
read as the text, "Ye also helping together by 
prayer for us;" language which shows what a mar- 
vellous change had been wrought in many of the 
Corinthians; and what a change that change had 
wrought in the relations, and in the feelings of St. 
Paul towards them. £Tow he could count confi- 



ST. PAUL AT CORINTH. 



401 



dently enough upon their sympathy and interest in 
himself and in his work, to feel that he might call 
upon them to unitedly aid him by their prayers. 

When he made that call, he had recently been de- 
livered from a danger, which had caused him to 
despair of life. It is not absolutely certain what that 
danger was. But from an expression which he uses 
in the fifteenth chapter of his first epistle, "If after 
the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at 
Ephesus" — it has been conjectured, that he was 
there subjected to that terrible ordeal, by which the 
heathen persecutors often destroyed their victims, 
while they at the same time amused themselves; 
casting them into an arena with ferocious wild 
beasts, and compelling them to fight for their lives. 
"For we would not have you ignorant, brethren," 
he writes, alluding to this, " of our trouble which 
came to us in Asia," where Ephesus was, " that we 
were pressed out of measure above strength, inso- 
much that we despaired even of life. But we had 
the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should 
not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the 
dead. "Who delivered us from so great a death and 
doth deliver: in whom we trust that He will yet 
deliver us ; ye also helping together by prayer for 
us." The time had been, when many of those Cor- 
inthians would have felt no backwardness in butch- 
ering the Apostle to make a holiday ; would gladly 
have seen him cast to the Hons; and with all the zest 
with which even in our day, crowned heads can enjoy 
the brutalities of the bull-fight, have watched his 
struggles with the ferocious beasts, and seen his life- 
blood crimson the arena. 



402 



SERMONS. 



But now " old things had passed away, and all 
things had become new." The Apostle felt that the 
question of his personal safety, was now a question 
in which multitudes of the Corinthians would take 
the liveliest interest. That they would pray for it ; 
that they felt it important to themselves and to the 
farther progress of the Gospel, that such an agent as 
St. Paul should be kept alive. They now regarded 
him as a great leader in the mighty contest with 
error, sin, and Satan. Their hearts were so thor- 
oughly enlisted in the work of their own salvation ; 
and they had now come to look upon the extension 
of Christ's kingdom in the world, as a matter of such 
paramount importance ; that they were ready to be- 
siege the throne of grace with supplications for their 
minister, that God would preserve his life, and give 
him courage and zeal, wisdom and abundant suc- 
cess; and that minister knew that they were now 
ready for the appeal, "ye also helping together by 
prayer for us." 

St. Paul knew that he stood alone when he first 
went to Corinth : that he had no help, no prayer to 
hope for then; that he must engage single-handed 
in the fight with ignorance and prejudice, profligacy 
and sin. But just as fast as, by the grace of God, he 
had success; just as fast as he brought sinners to 
repentance and faith, and baptized them into the 
fellowship of Christ's religion; just so fast did he 
count upon cordial, prayerful co-operation. He ex- 
pected that men who had been fornicators, and 
adulterers, and thieves, and drunkards even, would, 
so soon as they were converted from the error of 
their ways to the faith of Christ, begin to pray for 



ST. PAUL AT CORINTH. 



403 



their minister. He had no idea of a Christian who 
did not and would not do so. The professing Chris- 
tian, man or woman, who held back from doing so, 
he would have suspected of being a Christian in 
name only. What ! he to be left to fight the Lord's 
battles alone ! As if the rank and file of the army 
had no responsibility for his success, but might, with 
clear consciences, have saved themselves alone, and 
have devolved the whole task of the further exten- 
sion of the Gospel upon their minister ! He be left 
to struggle on for the rescue of dead and dying sin- 
ners, and no prayer go up that God would strengthen 
and prosper him, from those who professed to have 
their eyes, and their ears, and their hearts open to 
the tremendous responsibilities of this life, and the 
transcendant interests, and the ineffable glories of 
that which is to come ! He had no such thought. 
He counted upon it as a certain thing, that Chris- 
tians would also be " helping together by prayer for " 
him. He counted upon it as a certain thing, that the 
grace of God thus secured for himself and for those 
to whom he preached, he would act with new vigor, 
and find men the better prepared, the more ready to 
surrender to the calls and claims of Christ. 

Brethren, St. Paul's ministry had its peculiar 
perils, such as they who bear the like commission 
know nothing of now. The worst they have to look 
for is, occasionally, the sharp words with which those 
who are very far gone from righteousness sometimes 
resist the attempts, made in public or private, to 
bring them to repentance and amendment of life. 
But if, on the one hand, the ministry now have not 
that claim upon the prayers of Christians, which the 



404 



SERMONS. 



ceaseless exposure to peril and death gave St. Paul 
upon the believers of his day; neither have they, on 
the other hand, those extraordinary comforts and en- 
couragements, directly from Christ Himself, which 
St. Paul had; and which might have seemed to 
render it unnecessary that Christians should pray 
for him. He could remember how time and again, 
Jesus had communicated with him from heaven; 
telling him where to labor, and cheering his spirit, 
when the trials and dangers of his course seemed 
too much for him. This man, so wonderfully fa- 
vored, did yet lean upon Christian people, as though 
he felt their prayers indispensable to his safety and 
success. He must have them. Again and again he 
pleads for them; and he makes it impossible for 
Christians to overlook the fact, that it was not more 
his duty to labor as Christ's minister, than it was 
theirs to hold up his hands by their prayers. 

Brethren, in the book of God's remembrance, out 
of which we all are to be judged at the last day, the 
records of another year of privilege and responsi- 
bility are nearly completed. The last Sunday of 
another of our few years of probation, is rapidly 
hurrying away. What is the aspect of the congre- 
gation in the declining hours of this added season of 
opportunity? What have been the results of this 
year, in view of that eternal world, and that Judg- 
ment-seat, which it has brought so much nearer? 
Are we all ready — our peace made with God through 
Jesus Christ — our sins done away by God's mercy — 
our hearts fully alive to our responsibilities and our 
duties, our hopes and prospects ? Are we all ready ? 
Every man and every woman — every one of respon- 



ST. PAUL AT CORINTH. 



405 



sible age ? A congregation with one accord on its 
way to heaven ? 

Would to God it were so ! But oh ! how far, how 
very far from such a state are we ! Here is one, and 
there is another, whom, as yet, neither the fear of 
hell, nor the love of Christ has persuaded to abandon 
even open immorality. Here is one, and there is an- 
other, not totally insensible to religious obligation, 
who has yet wasted another year in halting between 
two opinions; meaning, and hoping some time, to 
confess Christ and lay hold upon the hopes of the Gos- 
pel ; but ever saying, when urged to the point — " that 
time is not now." Many scarcely ever absent from 
their places here, throughout the year, are, at its 
close, just as far from the kingdom of God, just as 
little afraid of dying in their sins and losing their 
own souls, just as indifferent to a Saviour's love, and 
the " still small voice" of the Spirit, as they were 
at the beginning. 

Oh ! if this day, even at this moment the pealing 
Judgment-trump should dash to the earth this house 
of God, and show us "the Son of Man coming in 
the clouds of heaven with power and great glory," 
to bring us all before His throne — and the awful di- 
viding line should pass through this congregation, 
and put upon the left hand all who belonged there 
— where would you be my fellow-sinners? would 
there be few of you assembled there ? Nay, would 
there not be many there ? If at such a moment, a 
pastor could think of anything but his own tre- 
mendous account to be given to God; would not 
his heart be riven to behold many of those for whose 

35 



406 



SERMONS. 



souls he had watched, passing terror-stricken to the 
left hand of their Judge? And why? oh! why so 
many at the close of another year in an unprepared 
state ? why, now, so much unaccomplished work, if 
all these souls are to be prepared for Judgment? 

Brethren, I do not shrink from pressing that ques- 
tion home first upon my own heart. I stand here 
to-day to confess before you all, that in no one re- 
spect do I conceive myself to have fulfilled my min- 
istry. Ah ! what should we be, who bear the very 
commission of the crucified Jesus, and are sent by 
Him to save sinners, even as He died upon the Cross 
to save them ! What should we be with our mount- 
ain load of responsibility — the motives and rewards 
set before us — the gleaming flames of perdition, tell- 
ing us of the horrible punishment in store for the un- 
faithful minister, and the dazzling crown of glory of- 
fering its transcendant bliss to fidelity — what should 
we be ! How instant in season and out of season ! how 
heedful of ourselves and of our doctrine ! how con- 
sumed of zeal to finish the "work given us to do ! 
We dare not deny unmeasured shortcoming ! 

But let me ask you one question. Communicants 
of this parish, as through the past year your minis- 
ter has been laboring on, attempting the so difficult 
task of recovering from the wicked ways of open 
vice; of breaking up the dull, dead slumber of souls, 
of getting men and women, young and old, ready 
for God's call to Judgment; as this momentous 
work has been going on, have " you also been help- 
ing together by prayer " for him ? If fathers and 
mothers, husbands and wives, sisters, and brothers, 
and children, are this day utterly unprepared for 



ST. PAUL AT CORINTH. 



407 



God's summons ; can you lay your hands upon your 
hearts, and say before God, " my prayers, constant 
and earnest, have not been wanting to bring about 
a different result?" Do you feel that your pastor's 
life has been prolonged, and his tongue, and voice, 
and heart been made strong for God, and God's work, 
by your prayers ? 

My dear brethren, ye who have yet to come unto 
Christ that you may have life ; to return from your 
wanderings; to begin to live for eternal aims; it 
may be true that both minister and communicants 
might have done much more than they have done 
to bring about your return to God. They may have 
their responsibility and fault, that at the end of an- 
other year you are yet strangers to the name and 
hopes of Christians. But say, in all honesty, has 
not enough been said and done to leave you without 
excuse before God, that the close of the year finds 
you not yet a follower of the Lord who bought you ? 
And will you not, amidst the solemnities of such a 
point of time, reflect seriously upon your state of guilt 
and danger ; and yourselves press upon your own con- 
sciences the Saviour's demand that there be no more 
delay, no more trifling, where the interest of your 
souls, never-dying and blood-bought, imperatively 
claim to be considered? The last Sunday of the 
year — of the last year in how many cases — does it 
not speak for God and for Christ and for a coming 
eternity ? And will you not open your ears to that 
call, and ask yourselves why you should not at once 
decide for God? And resolve in His strength, in 
penitence and faith, to confess Him before men, who 
lived and died to save you ? 



408 



SERMONS. 



"Ye also helping together by prayer for us." 
Christian brethren, do not leave us to ourselves. 
Do not leave us single-handed in this mighty and 
momentous work; this life-long endeavor, not only 
to build you up who bear Christ's name, but to snatch 
as brands from the everlasting burning, the many 
who are "sitting in darkness and the shadow of 
death." ISTot a day of the year but we need, as we 
have a claim upon, your prayers. I dare not say we 
cannot do without them; but I dare say, and do say, 
that they may be the vital strength of our ministry. 
Try if it be not so. Resolve this day that so far as 
you are concerned it shall not be true, as a now dead 
Bishop, when alive, lamented, "I fear that through- 
out the land the ministers of Thy word and sacra- 
ments are but little prayed for." What may not 
another year, if God has so long a store of days in 
reserve for us, what may not another year accom- 
plish, "ye also helping together by prayer for us?" 
It will do your own souls good thus to pray; it will 
make you better Christians, more alive to your own 
duties and interests and hopes. And we hardly dare 
trust ourselves to speak of the results it may accom- 
plish, through a ministry comparatively fruitless 
without it. Soon the time for preaching and for 
praying will for us be over. The last year of life is 
advancing upon us from the future. We know not 
how near the time of our departure is at hand. The 
fiat may have gone forth for me, for you, " This year 
thou shalt die." Oh ! let us, one and all, say as 
Jesus did, "I must work the works of Him that 
sent me while it is day; the night cometh when no 
man can work !" 



